Department for Transport

Driving Instruction: Electric Vehicles

Douglas Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department provides incentives for driving instructors to use electric vehicles.

George Freeman: The Department provides incentives through grant funding schemes to assist with the cost of purchasing new electric vehicles. These incentives are available for all motorists, including driving instructors. Grant funding schemes are also available to help pay for installing chargepoints in motorists’ homes, residential streets and workplaces. All electric vehicle motorists benefit from a favourable tax regime that rewards the cleanest vehicles.

South Western Railway: Finance

Andy McDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Pursuant to the Answer of 22 October to Question 231 on South Western Railway: Finance and with reference to the financial performance data received by his Department on 27 September 2019, whether First Group and MTR Company are fully compliant with the requirements of its operating franchise agreement.

Chris Heaton-Harris: The Department can confirm that South Western Railway was fully compliant with the relevant financial requirements of its Franchise Agreement based on the financial performance data received on 27 September 2019.

Northern: Finance

Andy McDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 22 October to Question 238 on Northern: Finance and with reference to the financial performance data received by his Department on 27 September 2019, whether Arriva is fully compliant with the requirements of its operating franchise agreement.

Chris Heaton-Harris: The Department can confirm that Northern was fully compliant with the relevant financial requirements of its Franchise Agreement based on the financial performance data received on 27 September 2019.

First TransPennine Express: Finance

Andy McDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 22 October to Question 239 on First TransPennine Express: Finance and with reference to the financial performance data received by his Department on 27 September 2019, whether First is fully compliant with the requirements of its operating franchise agreement.

Chris Heaton-Harris: The Department can confirm that First TransPennine Express was fully compliant with the relevant financial requirements of its Franchise Agreement based on the financial performance data received on 27 September 2019.

Abellio Greater Anglia: Finance

Andy McDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the financial performance data received by his Department from Greater Anglia on 27 September 2019, whether Abellio Mitsui is fully compliant with the requirements of its franchise agreement.

Chris Heaton-Harris: The Department can confirm that Greater Anglia was fully compliant with the relevant financial requirements of its Franchise Agreement based on the financial performance data received on 27 September 2019.

UK Trade with EU: Freight

Andy McDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 22 October to Question 230 on UK Trade with EU: Freight, what estimate he has made of the cost of terminating government-secured freight capacity contracts if they are not required from 31 October 2019.

Chris Heaton-Harris: In the event that the capacity is no longer required, DfT would be liable to pay a maximum of £11.5m in early termination fees though the final figure is expected to be lower.

Forests

Andy McDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many woodland clearances have been (a) proposed and (b) undertaken by Highways England since 2015; and what estimate he has made of the total number of woodland clearances proposed by HS2 Ltd.

Paul Maynard: Highways England do not hold data on woodland clearances centrally. Data on woodland clearance is, however, recorded within the relevant Environmental Statement or environmental assessment report developed for each project. Given the various stages at which Highways England’s projects are developed and delivered it is not possible to provide an accurate figure at this time of how many woodland sites have been affected. HS2’s anticipated impacts on woodlands are set out in the Environmental Statements for each Phase of the project. The route between London and Crewe (Phases One and 2a) will affect approximately 3.8 square kilometres of woodland (consisting 0.39km2 ancient woodland, 3.4km2 non-ancient). Along the Phase One route alone, HS2 Ltd will be creating 9 square kilometres of new native woodland. In addition HS2’s Woodland Fund will create further woodland and enhance the quality of existing woodlands. The working draft Environmental Statement for Crewe to Manchester and West Midlands to Leeds (Phase 2b) assumes approximately 0.5 square kilometres of woodlands (consisting 0.17km2 ancient, 0.34km2 non-ancient) will be affected. Further woodland planting similar to Phase One and 2a will be implemented to mitigate and compensate.

Motorways: Accidents

Andy McDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the of accidents on smart motorways.

George Freeman: The top three contributory factors identified by police officers attending the scene of collisions on smart motorways, which represent around three quarters of those identified are:Driver/Rider Error (i.e. failed to look properly, loss of control)Injudicious Action (i.e. close following, travelling too fast for the conditions);Impairment/Distraction (i.e. fatigue, mobile phones and impaired by alcohol).

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Thomas Cook: Insolvency

Ms Lisa Forbes: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 17 October 2019 to Question 374, how much funding from the public purse Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority received from the package of support following the collapse of Thomas Cook; and what funding the Government is providing to support (a) former employees with re-employment and (b) businesses to take on redundant employees of that company.

Kelly Tolhurst: The National Taskforce for Thomas Cook will look to ensure existing mechanisms to offer support and associated governance are working effectively. Additionally, the Rapid Response Service is helping people find a new job as soon as possible by offering tailored support, which includes: Help with job searches, including CV writing and interview skills.Help to identify transferable skills and skills gaps, linked to the local labour market.Training to update skills, learn new ones and gain industry recognised certification that will improve employability.Help to overcome barriers to attending training, securing a job or self-employment, such as childcare costs, tools, work clothes and travel costs.

Thomas Cook: Insolvency

Ms Lisa Forbes: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of establishing a business growth zone for Peterborough following the collapse of Thomas Cook.

Kelly Tolhurst: Government is supporting businesses in Peterborough by continuing to invest in the Signpost 2 Grow Growth Hub run by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority. The Growth Hub is available to help support business growth through signposting and referring to existing business support provision and to identify gaps in provision and source suitable alternatives whether free, subsidised or commercially available.   Signpost 2 Grow is a part of the network of 38 Growth Hubs that are local public/private sector partnerships led by the Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs). They join up national and local business support, so it is easy for businesses to find the help they need.

Disclosure of Information

Martyn Day: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of protections for whistleblowers; and if she will make a statement.

Kelly Tolhurst: The Government recognises how valuable it is that whistleblowers are prepared to shine a light on wrongdoing, and believes that they should be able to do so without fear of recriminations. Government has committed to review the UK whistleblowing framework and will carry this out once sufficient time has passed for there to be the necessary evidence available to assess the impact of recent reforms.

Post Offices: Tenbury Wells

Harriett Baldwin: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if she will make representations to Post Office Limited to ensure that Tenbury Wells Post Office is open for the peak Christmas period; and if she will make a statement.

Kelly Tolhurst: The Government recognises the critical role that post offices play in communities and for small businesses across the UK. This is why the Government committed to safeguard the post office network and protect existing rural services. The overall number of post offices across the UK remains at its most stable in decades with over 11,500 branches thanks to significant Government investment of over £2 billion since 2010. While the Government sets the strategic direction for the Post Office, it allows the company the commercial freedom to deliver this strategy as an independent business. The opening of the Tenbury Well Post Office is an operational matter for Post Office Limited. I have therefore asked Nick Read, the Group Chief Executive of Post Office Limited, to write to the hon Member on this matter. A copy of his reply will be placed in the Libraries of the House.

Business: Digital Technology

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps her Department is taking to help businesses expand through the use of digital platforms.

Kelly Tolhurst: We want the UK to be the best place in the world to start and grow a business. Government is taking action to support businesses to take advantages of the opportunities to expand through digital platforms in several ways:As businesses and consumers increasingly use digital platforms, it is important that competition works well in these markets. That is why the Government commissioned Professor Jason Furman to identify how to unlock competition in digital markets. The Government is considering his proposals and will respond in due course.Government’s Exporting is GREAT campaign supports UK businesses with free expert e-commerce export support. DIT’s E-Exporting Programme’s Selling Online Overseas Tool, that sits on great.gov.uk, is a free to use online service that helps UK companies identify and sell on global marketplaces.We are acting to support SMEs to adopt basic digital technology, including using e-commerce software. For example, we recently announced the third wave of funding through our Business Basics Programme to test innovative ways of encouraging SMEs to adopt basic technologies. This round of funding will include up to £1m focusing the adoption of payment technology, including ecommerce technologies.The Digital Skills Partnership (DSP), announced in the UK Digital Strategy 2017, aims to improve digital skills across the skills spectrum and the Digital Enterprise Delivery Group, led by Lloyds Banking Group, is working to increase the digital capabilities of SMEs. The group is now working with partners on a programme aimed at increasing efficiency and productivity through greater tech adoption among SMEs.

Loneliness

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Government's loneliness strategy, how many employers have committed to the Campaign to End Loneliness pledge on supporting the social wellbeing of employees.

Kelly Tolhurst: The Campaign to End Loneliness and BEIS are engaged with a range of organisations through the Employers Leadership Group and others including the Federation of Small Businesses, Contact the Elderly and TalkTalk, to draw together examples of good practice in tackling loneliness. We are working with these organisations to share good practice and develop advice and guidance which may help others do more to support the social wellbeing of employees. Thirty employers have so far signed the Campaign to End Loneliness Pledge.

Loneliness

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to page 39 of the Government's loneliness strategy, what recent discussions she has had with businesses on how businesses can provide community space outside business hours.

Kelly Tolhurst: BEIS continues to work with the Campaign to End Loneliness through the Employer Leadership Group to identify best practice by employers in tackling loneliness – both in their own workforce and in the wider community. The group strengthens cooperation and coordination between Government, business and other groups with an interest in tackling loneliness. It last met on 23rd July, and will meet again on 7th November. The intention is to publish examples of good practice by the end of the year. We expect this to include examples of employers providing community space.

Retail Trade: Employment

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to prevent job losses in the retail industry.

Kelly Tolhurst: Holding answer received on 29 October 2019



Retail remains a high employment sector – approximately 3 million jobs in the UK. More people are involved in retailing than in any other single industry in the country. There were 84,000 vacancies in the retail sector as of August 2019. In 2018, Government established the industry led Retail Sector Council to bring Government and industry together to boost the sector’s productivity and economic health. The Council has agreed its six priority work areas with four already underway. These are: Costs to Business, Skills and Lifelong Learning, Industrial Strategy and Employment workstreams. As part of wider Government efforts to support adult training, we are also investing £100m to develop The National Retraining Scheme, which will help prepare adults for future changes to the economy, including those brought about by automation, and help them retrain into better jobs. This funding has allowed us to start delivering the first part of the service, Get Help to Retrain, whilst developing and evaluating as we build-up the scheme. We have introduced Get Help to Retrain to 6 areas of England and we will be rolling it out across England in 2020. The digital service helps adults understand their existing skills and explore alternative occupations, and training opportunities to develop new skills.

Retail Trade

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps her Department is taking to support discussions between local governments and the retail industry to help ensure a joint approach to draw consumers to the high street.

Kelly Tolhurst: Holding answer received on 29 October 2019



The Government is committed to helping communities adapt to market processes and we are taking action to help the high street evolve. In July 2019, my rt. hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced a £3.6 billion Towns Fund to re-energise local economies so that everyone can share in a new era of prosperity. This included £1 billion for the Future High Streets Fund, which will support local areas in England to renew and reshape town centres and high streets in a way that improves experience, drives growth and ensures future sustainability.We are also supporting local leadership with a High Streets Task Force, giving high streets and town centres expert advice to adapt and thrive. This will provide hands-on support to local areas to develop data-driven innovative strategies and connect local areas to relevant experts. The Task Force will also provide training and help to improve coordination between different groups working to improve their high streets which includes retailers.The Government has also established the industry led Retail Sector Council​ to bring Government and industry together to boost the sector's productivity and economic health. The Council has established its six priority workstreams which includes the Industrial Strategy with a focus on place. The Council has identified high streets as an important area to be considered on an ongoing basis.

New Businesses: Government Assistance

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps she has taken to support (a) women and (b) people from ethnic minorities that want to set up businesses.

Kelly Tolhurst: Holding answer received on 29 October 2019



The UK is one of the best places in the world to start and grow a business. Government is committed to supporting all entrepreneurs, whatever their background, to have the opportunity to make their business ideas a reality.We provide support to all entrepreneurs to set up businesses through our online services on GOV.UK, the Business Support Helpline, and the network of 38 local Growth Hubs across England. In 2018, 47% of the Business Support Helpline’s callers were women.We have been working closely with HM Treasury and industry to implement the eight initiatives from the Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship, to tackle the barriers faced by women when starting and scaling a business. We have set an ambition to increase the number of female entrepreneurs by half by 2030 – equivalent to an additional 600,000 female entrepreneurs.The British Business Bank’s Start-Up Loans Programme provides funding and intensive support to new entrepreneurs, and has delivered over 67,000 loans, worth over £534m since it began in 2012 (as at end-September 2019). 40% of Start Up Loans have gone to women – worth over £198m. 20% of Start Up Loans have gone to BAME entrepreneurs – worth over £100m.BEIS has also launched an independent review into Young Entrepreneurship, led by the Prince’s Trust, that seeks to better understand young entrepreneurs, including young female and ethnic minority entrepreneurs, the specific barriers and opportunities they face – such as access to finance, and networks - and what more can be done to support them to start and grow a business.

Social Enterprises

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps she has taken to promote (a) social enterprise and (b) other alternative forms of business.

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps she has taken to promote community interest companies as a form of business.

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps she has taken to encourage people setting up businesses to embed (a) social and (b) environmental purpose into their business structures.

Kelly Tolhurst: Holding answer received on 29 October 2019



The Government welcomes the contribution which social enterprises make to local growth and prosperity in our communities up and down the country. The UK’s company law framework allows for a variety of business forms, in part to suit those adopting social or environmental purposes. We welcome the growth of purposeful businesses and have taken steps to encourage and enable this trend. The Government encouraged the business-led development of ‘Purposely’, a tool to help social entrepreneurs embed purpose into their businesses using the flexibility provided in the Companies Act; it also established the Inclusive Economy Partnership to harness the power of business as a force for good in our society; and it has supported the new Impact Investing Institute to grow social investment. Community Interest Companies (CICs) are a huge success story. They are delivering benefits to more and more of our communities right across the UK. CICs have grown exponentially since 2005. There are now over 17,000 now on the public register. They are promoted by the Regulator of Community Interest Companies, which is an independent statutory office holder appointed by my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State. The UK’s corporate governance framework has been updated to promote purpose in businesses. The UK’s Corporate Governance Code was revised, with effect from 1 January 2019, to promote the importance of having a clear corporate purpose. The Governance Principles for Large Private Companies developed last year by Sir James Wates do the same. Company reporting requirements, also introduced this year, now require companies to report how they have regard to wider societal interests within the meaning of Section 172 of the Companies Act.

Business: Disadvantaged

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent steps she has taken to support the development of businesses in deprived communities.

Kelly Tolhurst: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Social Enterprises

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the findings of the global perception poll conducted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation that the UK has fallen from third to 13th place since 2016 in the list of the best places to be a social entrepreneur.

Kelly Tolhurst: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Post Offices: Bank Services

Emma Reynolds: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to oblige banks and building societies to sign an agreement with the Post Office to enable customers to withdraw money from their bank accounts at their local post office.

Kelly Tolhurst: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Private Education

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much his Department spent from the Continuity of Education Allowance on placements at (a) Eton, (b) Charterhouse, (c) Harrow, (d) Rugby, (e) Shrewsbury, (f) Westminster, (g) Winchester, (h) St Paul's and (i) Merchant Taylors schools in the last financial year for which data is available.

Christopher Pincher: Holding answer received on 21 October 2019



Members of the diplomatic service are expected to be widely deployable throughout their career. Whilst many parents prefer to take their children with them abroad, in some of the 168 countries and territories where the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has UK-based staff, we do not permit staff to take their children either for health or security reasons. However, frequent moves by staff and families between the United Kingdom and overseas, and between Posts overseas, can be disruptive to the education of the children. Therefore, the FCO provides Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA). This enables staff who meet certain eligibility criteria to choose to provide an uninterrupted education for their children at a British boarding school in the United Kingdom while they continue to take up postings overseas at regular intervals during their career. CEA is a long-standing FCO policy dating back in its current form to 1996 that provides clearly defined and limited financial support to staff to help maintain the continuity of their children's education.The FCO refunds standard term fees up to a ceiling which is reviewed annually. Where staff opt to send their children to more expensive schools, the difference in cost is met by the individual member of staff.The figures below represent the data for financial year 2018/19. For context, we have set out the FCO's total spend on education for children of staff posted overseas in PQ 752.School ​CEA Costs   Eton £295,440.00Charterhouse £97,428.00Harrow  Rugby £119, 233.00Shrewsbury  Westminster £78,651.00Winchester £163,345.00St Pauls  Merchant Taylors

Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Private Education

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the cost to the public purse was of continuity of education allowances for placements at (a) Fettes (b) Gordonstoun (c) Marlborough (d) King's Canterbury (e) Cheltenham (f) Tonbridge (g) Stowe (h) Benenden (i) Ampleforth and (j) Clifton private schools and colleges in 2018-19; how many there were at each school and college in that year; and what the (i) civil service grade and (ii) diplomatic service title was of each claimant.

Christopher Pincher: Holding answer received on 24 October 2019



Members of the diplomatic service are expected to be widely deployable throughout their career. Whilst many parents prefer to take their children with them abroad, in some of the 168 countries and territories where the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has UK-based staff, we do not permit staff to take their children either for health or security reasons, and frequent moves by staff and families between the UK and overseas, and between Posts overseas, can be disruptive to the education of the children. Therefore, the FCO provides Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA). This enables staff who meet certain eligibility criteria to choose to provide an uninterrupted education for their children at a British boarding school in the United Kingdom while they continue to take up postings overseas at regular intervals during their career. CEA is a long-standing FCO policy dating back in its current form to 1996 that provides clearly defined and limited financial support to staff to help maintain the continuity of their children's education. The FCO refunds standard term fees up to a ceiling which is reviewed annually. Where staff opt to send their children to more expensive schools, the difference in cost is met by the individual member of staff.The figures below represent the data for financial year 2018/19. We are unable to provide the diplomatic service title for each claimant in order to protect their identity. For context, we have set out the FCO's total spend on education for children of staff posted overseas in PQ 752​​NUMBER OF OFFICERS PER GRADE​​​​​​​School Number of childrenA2B3C4C5D6D7SMSTotal costsAmpleforth41* 2129,081Fettes3 1  1 197,949Gordonstoun5  3   1*152,656Marlborough2 1164,952Kings Canterbury4 1*2123,642Cheltenham2  1   156,241Tonbridge2  1*64,952Stowe6 111111195,101Benendon3   1 1197,428Clifton0   0.00TOTAL3104524313982,002 *officer has 2 children at the school

Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Private Education

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many diplomatic staff claimed Continuity of Education Allowance in 2018-19 for UK-based private school fees; how many of the claimants were at each pay grade; and what contribution his Department asked claimants to make towards those fees.

Christopher Pincher: Holding answer received on 24 October 2019



Members of the diplomatic service are expected to be widely deployable throughout their career. Whilst many parents prefer to take their children with them abroad, in some of the 168 countries and territories where the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has UK-based staff, we do not permit staff to take their children either for health or security reasons, and frequent moves by staff and families between the UK and overseas, and between Posts overseas, can be disruptive to the education of the children. Therefore, the FCO provides Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA). This enables staff who meet certain eligibility criteria to choose to provide an uninterrupted education for their children at a British boarding school in the UK while they continue to take up postings overseas at regular intervals during their career. CEA is a long-standing FCO policy dating back in its current form to 1996 that provides clearly defined and limited financial support to staff to help maintain the continuity of their children's education.The FCO refunds standard term fees up to a ceiling which is reviewed annually. Where staff opt to send their children to more expensive schools, the difference in cost is met by the individual member of staff.The figures below represent the data for financial year 2018/19. For context, we have set out the FCO's total spend on education for children of staff posted overseas in PQ 752.​​Grade of Officers ​​​​​​​​​​ A2B3C4C5D6D7SMS1SMS2SMS3TotalNumber of Officers claiming CEA by Grade​52646466042623615338

British Indian Ocean Territory: Sovereignty

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the legal implications of the UN resolution on the future of the Chagos Islands.

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to meet the six-month deadline set by the UN resolution on the future of the Chagos Islands.

Christopher Pincher: The UN General Assembly (GA) resolution relates to an Advisory Opinion issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concerning the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). Neither the ICJ Advisory Opinion nor the UN GA resolution are legally binding. Mauritius has never held sovereignty over BIOT and we do not recognise its claim. We have, however, made a long-standing commitment to cede sovereignty of the territory to Mauritius when it is no longer required for defence purposes. The British Government remains concerned that the referral to the ICJ contravened the principle that the Court should not consider bilateral disputes without the consent of both States concerned. It is notable in this context that in the UN GA, nearly 80 member states did not vote in favour of the resolution. The Government has considered the content of the Opinion carefully, however we do not share the Court’s approach. Any action in the UN GA that seeks to cut across a bilateral dispute by specifying how or when a non-binding Advisory Opinion might be implemented should be of concern to all Member States.

British Indian Ocean Territory: Sovereignty

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he plans to hold discussions with his Mauritian counterpart on proposals for co-management of the British Indian Ocean Territory.

Christopher Pincher: We have no doubt about our sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory, which has been under continuous British sovereignty since 1814. The United Kingdom remains committed to implementing the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea Arbitral Award of 2015. In line with the Award we will continue to approach discussions with Mauritius with an open mind about the best way to meet our obligations under the Award and to ensure proper conservation management of this unique marine environment.

British Indian Ocean Territory: Sovereignty

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the Government’s policy is on claims the Maldives have made on the seabed around the British Indian Ocean Territory.

Christopher Pincher: We have no doubt about our sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory, which has been under continuous British sovereignty since 1814. As communicated to the UN Secretary-General at the time the Government considers that the submission of the Republic of the Maldives to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf of 28 July 2010 does not take into full account the 200 nautical mile Fisheries and Environment Zones of the British Indian Ocean Territory, both of which themselves respect boundaries agreed with the Maldives at a technical level. The United Kingdom is fully committed to formalising these boundaries with the Maldives at the earliest opportunity.

India: Pakistan

John Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he will raise the deteriorating military and security situation on the India Pakistan border at the next meeting of the UN Security Council.

Mrs Heather Wheeler: The longstanding position of the UK is that it is for India and Pakistan to find a lasting political resolution on Kashmir bilaterally, taking into account the wishes of the Kashmiri people. We encourage India and Pakistan to engage in dialogue and find lasting, diplomatic solutions to maintain regional stability, but it is not for the UK to prescribe a solution or act as a mediator.​

British Nationals Abroad: Homicide

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure that families whose loved ones are murdered abroad have access to interpreter and translation services.

Andrew Stephenson: In cases where an interpreter or translator is needed families are provided with a list of translators that are compiled by our British embassies, high commissions and consulates abroad. Although we are unable to recommend translators our aim is to provide British nationals with relevant information to make informed decisions. This list is also published on the GOV.UK website.The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) provides funding to the Victim Support National Homicide Service who can also help families with translation of key documents where a murder or manslaughter occurred.

USA: Diplomatic Service

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, when he will announce the name of the successor to Sir Kim Darroch as British Ambassador to the USA.

Christopher Pincher: ​A new appointment will be made in due course. The United Kingdom has a strong relationship with the US which is based on many decades of close cooperation and partnership, and that will remain the case.

Attorney General

Attorney General: Jainism and Zoroastrianism

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Attorney General, when representatives of the (a) Jain and (b) Zoroastrian community were invited to national events organised by his Department in each of the last two years.

Michael Ellis: The Jain and Zoroastrian communities of this country have made, and continue to make a positive contribution to life in the United Kingdom. The Government values this contribution enormously. The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) has not organised any national events in the last two years where it has invited representatives of the Jain or Zoroastrian communities. The AGO is a small and specialised Ministerial Department that does not commonly organise national events. The AGO will endeavour to invite representatives of the Jain and Zoroastrian communities to relevant events.

Department of Health and Social Care

Palliative Care: Expenditure

Mr Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding was allocated to palliative care in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) the UK in each year since 2010.

Mr Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many hospices have closed in the (a) North East and (b) UK in each year since 2010.

Mr Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many operational hospices there were in (a) the North East, and (b) the UK in each year since 2010.

Caroline Dinenage: Data on the total funding allocated to hospice services in England is not routinely collected centrally, as the vast majority of funding decisions are a matter for local commissioners. Funding in the constituent countries of the United Kingdom is a matter for the devolved administration of those countries.

Palliative Care: Finance

Mr Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding his Department plans to allocate to end of life care in each of the next five years.

Mr Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his policy is on the funding of hospices; and what levels of funding his Department plans to allocate to palliative care in each financial year until 2025.

Mr Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his policy is on allocating funding to hospices in (a) the North East and (b) the UK; and what level of funding his Department plans to allocate to palliative care in each financial year until 2025.

Caroline Dinenage: As with the vast majority of National Health Service services, the commissioning of palliative and end of life care is a local matter, over which individual clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) have responsibility. CCGs are best placed to understand the needs of local populations and allocate funding for services to meet those needs from the overall resource allocations they receive. Much of the palliative care patients receive will be provided either in outpatient or community settings, by nurses, community teams or general practitioners (GPs) as part of general NHS services provision, rather than as an identified palliative care service. In such services, data are either not available or do not identify palliative treatment. In addition, social and voluntary sector organisations can provide additional support to patients and the end of life. Therefore, figures for the total cost or allocation of funding for palliative and end of life care services are not available. The vast majority of hospices were established from charitable and philanthropic donations and are therefore primarily charity-funded and independently run. However, they receive some statutory funding from CCGs and the Government for providing local NHS services. The majority of decisions regarding the statutory funding hospices receive, are a local matter.Published in January 2019, the NHS Long Term Plan has a commitment to match CCGs up to £7 million from NHS England for Children and Young People’s Palliative and End of Life Care (CYP PEOLC), on condition of £7 million match funding from CCGs by 2023/24. This will create a total planned additional spending of at least £14million a year for CYP PEOLC services across all providers. In addition, on 20 August the Government announced that £25 million in funding for hospices and palliative care services. This will help alleviate pressures on hospices and boost our local palliative care services; providing for new services – such as out-of-hours support, respite care and specialist community teams. Importantly, the funding is for adults and children and young people’s hospices and palliative services; this is non-recurrent funding and the £25 million announcement relates to 2019/20 only and; the money is to be spent locally, improving care for patients as soon as possible. NHS England and NHS Improvement have been working to get this money into local areas as a priority and have uplifted CCG resource allocations to reflect the new funding this month. The expectation is that CCGs work collaboratively to assign the money to hospices and palliative services as a sustainability and transformation partnership (STP) across their STP footprint. On 1 July 2019, the Government announced plans to increase Children’s Hospice grant from £12 million in 2019/20 to £25 million by 2023/24. The grant is provided to children’s hospices to compensate for lower levels of local statutory funding they receive, compared to adult hospices. The planned grant allocations by financial year are as follows: 2020/21 £15 million; 2021/22 £17 million; 2022/23 £21 million; 2023/24 £25 million. Plans for financial year 2024/25 yet to be developed as the Long Term Plan only covers the period to 2023/24.

General Practitioners: Tyne and Wear

Mr Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many practising GPs there were in (a) Jarrow constituency and (b) South Tyneside in each year since 2010.

Jo Churchill: The number of headcount general practitioners (excluding locums), working in general practice for each year since September 2015 is available in the following table. General practitioner (GP) locums are excluded as improvements have been made to GP locum recording methodology and figures are not comparable prior to December 2017. Current data is not comparable to 2010. As such, September 2015-18 data has been provided. Figures are not available for Jarrow constituency.  South Tyneside Clinical Commissioning Group Headcount GPs (excluding locums)September 2015106September 2016104September 201799September 201899 Notes:Data as at 30 September 2015-2018.Figures shown do not include GPs working in prisons, army bases, educational establishments, specialist care centres including drug rehabilitation centres and walk-in centres.Figures contain estimates for practices that did not provide fully valid General Medical Practice staff records.Headcount totals are unlikely to equal the sum of the components. Further information on the headcount methodology is available in the General Practice Workforce publication.The figures for GPs excluding Locums as this data is not comparable across the time series.Data must be compared from the same time point in the year, therefore September 2018 data is provided to allow comparison the earliest available data. Data covering 30 September 2019 will be published on 28 November 2019 and is available at the following link:https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/general-and-personal-medical-servicesData collected and published prior to September 2015 is not comparable due to a change in data collection methodology.“-” denotes zero, “0” denotes greater than 0, less than 0.5, “..” denotes not applicable.Source – NHS Digital

General Practitioners: Standards

Mr Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time was for a patient to see a GP in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) Tyne and Wear, (d) the North East and (e) England in each year since 2010.

Jo Churchill: Data on appointments in general practice have only been available since November 2017. The most recent data on the time between booking an appointment with a general practice and having the appointment (in days) for South Tyneside Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), NHS England North East and Yorkshire (Cumbria and North East) Regional Local Office, and England are presented in the table below as the average over the 12 months from September 2018 to August 2019. NHS Digital is unable to provide data for all the geographical areas requested as the data is collected at CCG level, but has provided data for three included in the table.The data is taken from the NHS Digital publication ‘Appointments in General Practice’. This is a new experimental data collection which is still being refined and improved.It should be noted that the ‘time from booking to appointment’ refers only to the time elapsed between the successful booking of an appointment and the appointment actually taking place. The data does not take into consideration that many patients will be appropriately booking ahead as part of the continuity of care they receive for long-term conditions. South Tyneside CCGNHS England North East and Yorkshire (Cumbria and North East) Regional Local OfficeEngland Distribution of average time elapsed between booking an appointment and the appointment taking place, September 2018 to August 2019. (Numbers may not add to 100% due to rounding.)Same Day38%40%42%1 Day9%7%7%2 to 7 Days25%21%20%8 to 14 Days13%14%14%15 to 21 Days6%7%8%22 to 28 Days4%5%5%More than 28 Days3%5%5%Total100.0%100.0%100.0% NotesThere are several factors that drive the time from a booking to an appointment. This includes appointment availability at the practice, patient availability, the urgency of the appointment and general practitioner (GP) advice.The data does not differentiate between emergency and routine appointments in general practice.The data does not include any information about the patients or clinical informationThe data in the response includes appointments with all healthcare professional types, including GPs and other practice staff.Not all practices in England are included in the appointments in general practice publication, meaning the total number of appointments is not known.Same day and next day bookings are of particular interest so are presented here separately. Further bookings are presented grouped by weeks.The number of appointments that have already happened is provided as recorded in participating practices in England. The data presented only contains information which was captured on the GP practice systems. This limits the activity reported on and does not represent all work happening within a primary care setting.

Health Services: Tyne and Wear

Mr Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the adequacy of funding for NHS services in (a) Jarrow constituency and (b) South Tyneside.

Mr Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding has been allocated from the public purse for NHS services in South Tyneside in each year since 2010.

Edward Argar: Clinical commissioning group (CCG) allocations for South Tyneside CCG, which covers Jarrow, are shown in the attached table. The CCG is expected to receive more than the England average per head per year in every year from 2019/20 to 2023/24. It has also received above the England average per head per year from 2013/14 to 2017/18. In 2019/20, South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust was allocated £2 million Public Dividend Capital for GDE Fast Follower scheme. In addition, North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, which covers South Tyneside and Jarrow, secured £835,000 The Trust’s predecessor, City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, also secured a £887,000 Public Dividend Capital award as part of a national programme for Energy Efficient LED Lighting. The Department are also aware of a likely award of Public Dividend Capital relating to Urgent and Emergency Care Services provision which is in the process of being allocated and there are a number of ongoing capital funding programmes that the Trust may be considering applications for.  



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Orkambi

Mr Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress his Department has made on negotiations between NHS England and Vertex pharmaceuticals on making Orkambi available on the NHS for people diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.

Jo Churchill: On 24 October, NHS England and NHS Improvement announced that a deal had been agreed with the company Vertex to make Orkambi and its other licensed cystic fibrosis drugs available to National Health Service patients in England. This deal, while commercially confidential, constitutes good value for the NHS, is backed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and will benefit around 5,000 patients with cystic fibrosis. NHS England and NHS Improvement have announced that there is no cap on patient numbers and all patients who might benefit can now get these treatments on the NHS. Clinicians will be able to begin prescribing these drugs within 30 days of this announcement.

Lighting: Health Hazards

Tracey Crouch: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the correlation between LED lighting in offices and (a) migraines and (b) other health conditions.

Jo Churchill: Public Health England (PHE) considers the impact of optical radiation on health, both from artificial and natural sources. There is currently insufficient evidence to develop specific advice on the link between the symptoms of migraines and other health conditions to Light Emitting Diode lighting in offices. PHE will continue to monitor the scientific literature in this area.

Dental Services: Finance

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what share of new funding under the NHS Long Term Plan is being assigned to increasing the capacity of NHS dental services.

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of new funding under the NHS Long Term Plan he plans to allocate to NHS dental services in the Vale of York.

Jo Churchill: The NHS Long Term Plan published on 7 January 2019, set out a 10-year strategy for the National Health Service. It sets out how the NHS will spend the £33.9 billion cash terms annual increase going into the NHS budget by 2023/24.It is for NHS England and NHS Improvement to make decisions about how to prioritise the how they meet the Long Term Plans commitments on dentistry from within the total settlement.Over the NHS Long Term Plan period, to 2023/24, NHS England and NHS Improvement’s commissioning allocations for dental services are planned to increase to cover population growth, increasing demand for services and inflationary cost pressures.NHS England and NHS Improvement are working closely with the Department to introduce a new NHS dental contract that will focus on achieving good oral health and increasing access to NHS dentistry, with a particular focus on improving the oral health of children, which are all key deliverables of the Long Term Plan.

Secure Accommodation: Autism

Ann Clwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many young people with autism placed in secure accommodation in England in 2018-2019 were held in seclusion.

Ann Clwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many young people with autism placed in secure accommodation in England in 2015 were held in seclusion.

Caroline Dinenage: The data is not held centrally in the format requested.The NHS Long Term Plan commits to achieving at least a 50% reduction in the number of people with a learning disability or autism who are inpatients in mental health hospitals by 2023/24. The NHS Planning Guidance requires a 35% reduction as soon as possible in 2019/20.In May 2019, the Care Quality Commission published their thematic review interim report regarding the use of restrictive interventions in settings that provide inpatient and residential care for people with, or who might have, mental health problems, learning disabilities and/or autism. We accepted all the recommendations and will undertake independent reviews of the care of everyone with a learning disability or autism detained in long-term segregation.The Mental Health Units (Use of Force) Act 2018 applies in relation to the use of force (restraint) in mental health units which provide National Health Service-funded treatment.The aim of the Act is to bring more rigour and accountability around the recording, reporting and training of staff in the use of force in mental health units, with a view to reducing the use of restrictive practices.The Act applies to all patients, children, young people and adults, who are being assessed or receiving treatment in a mental health unit.

Secure Accommodation: Autism

Ann Clwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many young people with autism were placed in secure accommodation in 2018-19.

Ann Clwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of young people with autism placed in secure beds in hospitals since October 2015.

Caroline Dinenage: The Assuring Transformation (AT) dataset provides data on the numbers of people with a learning disability and/or autism receiving inpatient care commissioned by the National Health Service in England. The AT dataset does not cover other secure settings such as young offender institutions or secure children’s homes.According to the AT dataset, the number of inpatients under the age of 18 with autism in a secure hospital ward between 1 April 2018 and 31 March 2019 was 70.The following table shows the number of inpatients under the age of 18 with autism in a secure hospital ward by year, from 1 October 2015 to 30 September 2019, according to the AT dataset.DateNumber of inpatients*1 October 2015 – 30 September 2016601 October 2016 – 30 September 2017451 October 2017 – 30 September 2018701 October 2018 – 30 September 201970  Note:The Assuring Transformation collection covers England, but includes patients whose care is commissioned in England and provided elsewhere in the UK. These figures represent the number of patients who are receiving inpatient care at the end of each month. Figures have not been revised with more recent information, but show the position at the end of each month as extracted from the system at that time.Values have been rounded to the nearest five to minimise disclosure risks associated with small numbers.Some patients have not been formally diagnosed with either a learning disability or autism but remain in the collection as they are understood to fall under one of these categories and as such were returned by data submitters.The above table includes patients who are under 18 at the start of the reporting year but may have turned 18 during the year.Inpatients may appear across more than one year.

HIV Infection: Drugs

Mr Ben Bradshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding his Department plans to allocate to the routine commissioning of PrEP.

Mr Ben Bradshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with local government, NHS England and Public Health England on identifying funding for (a) the routine commissioning of and (b) a national programme for PrEP.

Jo Churchill: The Department is continuing to work closely with NHS England and NHS Improvement, Public Health England and local government to ensure there is a seamless transition to routine commissioning of pre-exposure prophylaxis upon culmination of the trial. We will set out how the programme will be funded and how commissioners will be supported very shortly.

Health Visitors

Jo Platt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the number of health visitors in England in each year since 2010.

Jo Churchill: The data is not available in the format requested.

Health Visitors

Jo Platt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of trends in the level of health visitors in England on children's health.

Jo Churchill: Health visiting is an essential part of broader early years family support. The number of health visitors employed by National Health Service organisations reported through Electronic Staff Records shows reduction, but this is not a complete picture of the workforce as this goes not include social enterprises, private sector organisations or local authorities. It is the responsibility of local authorities to determine how the programme is provided to their communities based upon local needs.Data on mandated health visitor reviews shows national coverage remains above those achieved in 2015. However, there is variation at a local level. Data is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/health-visitor-service-delivery-metrics-2018-to-2019Progress against health and wellbeing outcomes for the zero to five years population, and inequalities in these outcomes, is published in Early Years Profiles at the following link:https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/child-health-profiles/data#page/1/gid/1938133223/pat/6/par/E12000001/ati/102/are/E06000005

Intensive Care: Private Sector

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications of his Department’s policy of outsourcing healthcare for patients in need of intense 24 hour care.

Edward Argar: This Government is fully committed to the National Health Service as a public service free at the point of need, whether care is provided by NHS organisations or by the private, voluntary or social enterprise sectors. No assessment has been made by the Department of the implications of outsourcing healthcare for patients, which in this instance we have taken to mean intense 24-hour NHS-Continuing Healthcare care. It is the responsibility of commissioners of NHS healthcare services to ensure that the NHS provides the highest quality of services possible, on a financially and operationally sustainable footing. For that reason, the Department neither bans nor promotes the use of the private, voluntary or social enterprise sectors – the key is whether outcomes for patients improve.

Air Pollution

Peter Aldous: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that local authorities have access to adequate data on air pollution and its associated health risks in order to make informed policy decisions.

Jo Churchill: In the Government’s Clean Air Strategy, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs committed to making local and national monitoring data accessible from a single location to help local authorities make informed policy decisions. These data can be viewed at the following link:https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs also provides calculation tools to support local authorities in their monitoring and modelling efforts at the following link:https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/networks/find-sites?site_name=&pollutant=9999&group_id=9999&country_id=9999&region_id=9999&location_type=9999&search=Search+Network&view=advanced&action=results

Health Professions: Hampshire

Mr Damian Hinds: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answers of 9 September 2019 to Question 286692 and 4 October 2019 to Question 290772 on Health Professions: Hampshire, what estimate he has made of the number of FTE (a) general practitioners, (b) other doctors and (c) nurses employed by the NHS in (i)	Hampshire and the Isle of Wight STP area, (ii) Fareham and Gosport CCG, (iii) North East Hampshire and Farnham CCG, (iv) North Hampshire CCG, (v) Portsmouth CCG, (vi) South Eastern Hampshire CCG, (vii) Southampton City CCG and (viii) West Hampshire CCG in (A) 2010 and (B) the most recent year for which figures are available.

Mr Damian Hinds: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care,  To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answers of 9 September 2019 to Question 286692 and 4 October 2019 to Question 290772 on Health Professions: Hampshire, what estimate he has made of the number of FTE (a) doctors (b) nurses and (c) other staff employed by the NHS in (i) Hampshire and the Isle of Wight STP area, (ii) Frimley Park Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, (iii) Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, (iv) Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, (v) Solent NHS Trust,  (vi) South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, (vii) Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust and (viii) University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust in (A) 2010 and (B) the most recent year for which figures are available.

Edward Argar: NHS Digital publishes Hospital and Community Health Services workforce statistics for England. These include staff working in hospital trusts and clinical commissioning groups, but not staff working in primary care, local authorities or other providers.The data requested is attached.   



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NHS and Social Services: Agency Workers

Mr Damian Hinds: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the cost to the (a) NHS and (b) social care system of (i) fees, (ii) markups and (ii) commissions to supply agencies for (A) clinical and (B) other staff.

Edward Argar: An error has been identified in the written answer given on 30 October 2019.The correct answer should have been:

In 2018/19, National Health Service trusts spent £2.40 billion on agency staff, including clinical and non-clinical staff. Between March 2018 and March 2019, £938 million was spent on agency medical staff, £950 million on agency nursing staff and £513 million on other staff.1 NHS Improvement’s agency rules include a cap which sets a ceiling for agency fees. Full details of the NHS Improvement price caps are attached. The Department does not hold data that shows the breakdown of fees, markups and commissions. The Department does not hold this data for social care. The Skills for Care programme estimates that in 2018/19 agency social care staff represented 7% of the 1.52 million people strong adult social care workforce.2  Notes:[1]https://improvement.nhs.uk/documents/5404/Performance_of_the_NHS_provider_sector_for_the_quarter_4_1819.pdf2https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/adult-social-care-workforce-data/Workforce-intelligence/documents/State-of-the-adult-social-care-sector/State-of-Report-2019.pdf



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Edward Argar: In 2018/19, National Health Service trusts spent £2.40 billion on agency staff, including clinical and non-clinical staff. Between March 2018 and March 2019, £938 million was spent on agency medical staff, £950 million on agency nursing staff and £513 million on other staff.1 NHS Improvement’s agency rules include a cap which sets a ceiling for agency fees. Full details of the NHS Improvement price caps are attached. The Department does not hold data that shows the breakdown of fees, markups and commissions. The Department does not hold this data for social care. The Skills for Care programme estimates that in 2018/19 agency social care staff represented 7% of the 1.52 million people strong adult social care workforce.2  Notes:[1]https://improvement.nhs.uk/documents/5404/Performance_of_the_NHS_provider_sector_for_the_quarter_4_1819.pdf2https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/adult-social-care-workforce-data/Workforce-intelligence/documents/State-of-the-adult-social-care-sector/State-of-Report-2019.pdf



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Social Prescribing: Training

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to page 27 of the Government's Loneliness strategy, what progress his Department has made on piloting a new accredited learning programme for social prescribing link workers.

Jo Churchill: NHS England has supported the development of a Level 3 Certificate in Social Prescribing, which is currently being piloted with a group of link workers across the North of England. An online learning programme has also been created working with Health Education England and partners. The first module is now live and can be found at the following link:www.e-lfh.org.uk/programmes/social-prescribing/

Hospitals: Construction

Karin Smyth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 8 October 2019 to Question 293621 on Hospitals: Construction, if he will publish the business cases.

Karin Smyth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 8 October 2019 to Question 293621 on Hospitals: Construction, whether the business cases will be supported by sustainability and transformation partnerships.

Karin Smyth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 8 October 2019 to Question 293621 on Hospitals: Construction, if he will publish the scores achieved by applicant schemes against the criteria referred to in paragraph five of the answer.

Edward Argar: National Health Service organisations undertaking investment schemes are required to produce business cases to support their decisions. Business cases are prepared by the NHS. The Department does not routinely publish business cases and the decision to publish the outline or full business cases this would be for the lead NHS organisation.Business cases will be supported by a range of stakeholders including sustainability and transformation partnerships and NHS regional teams. We have announced changes to the process for approving business cases, including looking at offering more assistance for providers in developing their business cases, potentially releasing some funding earlier, and streamlining the approvals process for submitted cases.The schemes on the shortlist of 21 projects, covering 34 hospitals were not assigned a “score”. The criteria used to arrive at the 21 projects identified to receive seed funding to kick start their schemes considered various aspects. The estates and facilities running costs were a factor and backlog, in particular Critical Infrastructure Risk (a subset of the highest risk elements of backlog with a potential for significant impact e.g. fire safety). Other areas considered were unused and functionally unsuitable space and incidents having an impact on clinical services. Furthermore, the list was checked to ensure regions were fairly represented. All this took place with engagement through NHS regional teams taking their view on overall investment need and local prioritisation.

NHS: Disclosure of Information

Karin Smyth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 8 October 2019 to Question 293626 on NHS: Disclosure of Information whether the FOI (Civil Procurement) Policy and Guidance Version 2.0 applies to commissioners of NHS services.

Edward Argar: The document ‘FOI (Civil Procurement) Policy and Guidance Version 2.0’ was published by the Office of Government in November 2008. The document provides policy and guidance on how requests for civil procurement-related information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) should be handled. Whilst primarily aimed at central Government Departments, it has application across the wider public sector wherever civil procurement is practised.The guidance states that this document represents the Government’s view of the application of the FOI to public procurement information but that the guidance is only intended as a starting point and public authorities remain responsible for making their own judgements in individual cases.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Faisal Rashid: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to (a) update GP guidance and (b) increase GP awareness of the symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome.

Caroline Dinenage: General practice is where most patients with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) are likely to be managed, and the condition is identified as a key area of clinical knowledge in the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Applied Knowledge Test (AKT) content guide. The AKT is a summative assessment of the knowledge base that underpins general practice in the United Kingdom within the context of the National Health Service and is a key part of GPs’ qualifying exams.In 2007, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published the clinical guideline, ‘Chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (or encephalopathy): Diagnosis and management of CFS/ME in adults and children. This sets out best practice in the diagnosis, treatment, care and support of people with the condition

Genito-urinary Medicine

Robert Halfon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will (a) introduce a national sexual health strategy to tackle increases in the levels of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and (b) allocate funding to testing for all STIs in sexual health clinics in England.

Jo Churchill: We have made excellent progress in some aspects of sexual and reproductive health, for example reducing new HIV infections and teenage pregnancy, but we are concerned about the worrying increases in some sexually transmitted infections. To address this, we announced on 24 October a new sexual health strategy to ensure that people know how to protect themselves, and can access the services they need for good sexual and reproductive health.The Government provides funding to local authorities for public health services, including sexual health services, through the ringfenced public health grant. It is for local authorities to determine how the public health grant is allocated in their local areas to meet their needs. Sexual health service providers should ensure commissioned services are in line with current national guidance, standards of training and care and quality indicators.

Derriford Hospital Plymouth: Repairs and Maintenance

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding has been allocated from the public purse to the rebuilding of Derriford Hospital, Plymouth.

Edward Argar: As announced on 30 September £100 million of seed funding has been made available to support 21 major projects covering 34 hospitals, to commence their development of schemes to be delivered in a second phase of major hospital rebuilds (HIP2), one of which is the Derriford Hospital scheme.This £100 million of seed funding will be provided as capital and will mainly be for enabling project teams, specialist advisers and site surveys.The funding will be drawn by providers in line with need up to 1% of the estimated capital value of each HIP2 scheme. Funding will be allocated following visits to the scheme by NHS England and NHS Improvement to discuss their proposals and how they can be helped to develop. Then Trusts will be required to provide a breakdown of what seed funding will be spent on and how that will accelerate the project development.The budget has been received for 2020-21 and 2021-22 financial years, but funding could be available in the current financial year if there is an immediate and strong case.Seed funding will not constitute approval of the scheme as a whole as that will be subject to further development and subject to the usual business case approvals process, including demonstrating affordability and value for money.

Care Homes

Sir Graham Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of residential places in therapeutic communities available in each (a) clinical commissioning group and (b) local authority area; and what the average waiting time is for those places in each area.

Ms Nadine Dorries: The information requested is not collected centrally.

Mental Health Services: Children

Mr Ranil Jayawardena: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 3 October 2019 to Question 294220 on Children: Mental Health, if he will make it his policy to collect data on the number of children provided with (a) therapy and (b) psychiatric medication for eco-anxiety.

Ms Nadine Dorries: We have no plans to do so.

Blood Cancer: Medical Treatments

Henry Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans the Government has to ensure that GPs follow NICE guidance on blood cancer.

Jo Churchill: Holding answer received on 29 October 2019



The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) clinical guidelines help healthcare professionals deliver the best possible care based on the best available evidence. The guidelines are not mandatory, although healthcare professionals are expected to take them fully into accountNICE’s updated referral guidelines for suspected cancer published in June 2015 could save about 5,000 lives a year, with general practitioners urged to think of cancer sooner and to lower the referral threshold for tests.

Immigrants: Health Services

Thangam Debbonaire: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of people paying the immigration healthcare surcharge required healthcare in the 2018-19 financial year; and what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of that healthcare.

Edward Argar: This information is not collected by the Department. In July 2018, the Government published an impact assessment. The impact assessment is available at the following link: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukia/2018/126/pdfs/ukia_20180126_en.pdf On the immigration health surcharge which included an estimation that the average cost of a surcharge payer to the National Health Service was approximately £480.

Incontinence: Medical Treatments

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it is his Department's policy that continence challenges should be (a) considered and (b) treated by NHS England to be a long-term condition.

Caroline Dinenage: Continence challenges are already being considered as part of the National Bowel and Bladder Health Project to support the delivery of the ambitions of the Excellence in Continence Care Programme within the National Health Service. This is led by NHS England and NHS Improvement and is aimed at improving the experience of care for patients and their carers.This programme will work towards a model of care which takes into account the expertise and resources of the people with long-term conditions and their communities, which the National Bowel and Bladder project aims to support via the clinical pathway workstreams. This will help to provide a holistic approach to patient care and lives, and help individuals achieve the best outcomes possible.

Syringes

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to introduce needle and syringe exchanges for drugs users.

Jo Churchill: Needle exchange and syringe services have played a vital role in harm reduction since the 1980s, reducing the number of drug-related deaths and blood-borne virus infections, particularly hepatitis C and HIV. They are commissioned by local authorities and are supported in this by Public Health England. The United Kingdom’s drug treatment clinical guidelines published in 2017 includes guidance on needle and syringe programmes and is available at the following link:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/673978/clinical_guidelines_2017.pdf

Sepsis: Health Education

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whats steps he is taking to improve public awareness and understanding of sepsis.

Ms Nadine Dorries: The Government continues to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of sepsis, through initiatives like Public Health England (PHE)’s national Start4life Information Service for Parents email programme, which targets parents of children under five-years-old; leaflets, posters and a content-rich social media toolkit for partners to use on their own channels are available for them to raise awareness at a community level. PHE has also worked in partnership with Mumsnet, a leading digital platform for parents, to raise awareness through editorial and social media promotion.

General Practitioners: Postnatal Care

Fiona Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the medical effectiveness of post-natal physical and mental health checks for new mothers, carried out by GPs.

Ms Nadine Dorries: Post-natal care can be delivered by a number of different providers, including midwives, health visitors and general practitioners (GPs). Commissioners and providers should ensure that women are offered a review of their physical, emotional and social wellbeing by a healthcare professional at the end of the postnatal period (between 6-8 weeks). NHS England and NHS Improvement expects commissioners and providers of maternity care to pay due regard to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines. NICE guidance on ‘Postnatal care up to 8 weeks after birth’ states that at each postnatal contact, women should be asked about their emotional wellbeing, what family and social support they have and their usual coping strategies for dealing with day-to-day matters. At the end of the postnatal period, the coordinating healthcare professional should ensure that the woman’s physical, emotional and social wellbeing is reviewed. NHS England and NHS Improvement have been reviewing the available evidence to establish a clearer picture of current practice in this area. NHS England has been working with the National Childbirth Trust on developing the evidence base, and we are following this important work closely.

General Practitioners: Postnatal Care

Fiona Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of including maternal post-natal mental health checks in the next GP contract.

Jo Churchill: The potential for a six-week post-natal maternal health check for all mothers is the subject of further work by NHS England and NHS Improvement.Decisions on changes to the general practitioner (GP) contract for 2020/21 will be made following negotiations between NHS England and the British Medical Association (BMA). NHS England will soon start formal negotiations with the General Practitioner Committee of the BMA on the 2020/21 GP contract.Support from health visitors and other professionals at the universal 6-8 week review is an important time for assessing the health and wellbeing of new parents, particularly in looking for signs of postnatal depression.

Wales Office

Foreign Students: Wales

Mrs Madeleine Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what recent assessment he has made of the (a) current level of funding available for study abroad programmes and (b) level of funding for study abroad programmes available post 2020 for students in Wales; and if he will make a statement.

Alun Cairns: As education is devolved, the UK Government does not hold figures on the current levels of funding for study abroad programmes in Wales. The UK Government values international exchange and collaboration in education and training as part of our vision for a global Britain. That is why we support a number of outward mobility and exchange programmes which broaden access to international opportunities – schemes such as Fulbright scholarships and Generation UK China. We can expect our world-leading HE providers to continue their strong track record of partnering with overseas institutions post-2020.

Department for Education

Voluntary Schools: Capital Investment

Mike Kane: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many applications were made under the first round of the new voluntary-aided schools capital scheme which closed in February 2019.

Nick Gibb: The Department received 14 bids in the first round of the voluntary-aided schools capital scheme; one bid (Runnymede St Edward's Catholic Primary School) was deemed ineligible and one bid (Archbishop Romero School) subsequently withdrew.A full list of applicant information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/voluntary-aided-schools-capital-scheme-applicant-information/voluntary-aided-schools-applicant-information.

Voluntary Schools: Capital Investment

Mike Kane: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to announce a second round of the new voluntary-aided schools capital scheme; and if he will make a statement.

Nick Gibb: The Department is currently developing the second round of the voluntary-aided capital scheme and expect to launch it shortly.

Schools: Buildings

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to page 11 of the Government's Loneliness strategy, whether he has issued guidance to schools on using their grounds as public community spaces.

Nick Gibb: The Department is developing guidance for schools which will include advice on how schools can use their premises for community use. This guidance will set out different types of income generation activities including letting out premises, working with local businesses, selling goods and services, and applying for grants. The Department intends to publish this on GOV.UK in due course.The Department’s aim is to level the playing field between schools in their ability to generate income and help them build strong community links at the same time.

Schools: Asbestos

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 21 October 2019 to Question 1024, on Schools: Asbestos, if his Department will publish the names of the schools that were found not to be managing asbestos in line with regulatory requirements.

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that all schools participate in the Asbestos Management Assurance Process.

Nick Gibb: The Asbestos Management Assurance Process (AMAP) was a voluntary data collection which had an excellent response rate of over 88%. All state-funded schools and academies in England, and their respective responsible bodies, were expected to participate and the Department is contacting the schools that did not respond to the AMAP to ask them to do so.The AMAP remains open for schools to update their information and the Department does not intend to publish information provided by individual schools and responsible bodies. This data was not collected on the basis that school responses would be published. Doing so would be likely to increase the burdens on school leadership teams and discourage future participation in data collections, undermining the Department’s ability to collect information to support schools in the effective management of asbestos.The Department published a detailed report on the findings from the AMAP in July 2019. Where the AMAP identified a concern, the Department is continuing to work with schools and duty holders directly, and with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as a regulator, to offer support. Where appropriate, this might include targeted inspections by the HSE to ensure they are taking remedial action to address issues in their asbestos management.The Department is also sharing guidance written specifically for schools on asbestos management to support schools and responsible bodies to meet their duties under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012.

Schools: Buildings

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to page 39 of the Government's strategy for tackling loneliness, what records his Department holds on the number of schools that allow their premises to be used outside school hours.

Nick Gibb: The information requested is not held centrally as the Department does not currently hold data on the number of schools that allow their premises to be used outside school hours. The Department will collect data on the income generated by schools letting their premises for the year 2019-20. This data should be available towards the end of next year.The Department encourages schools to make the best use of their facilities, particularly where this creates more opportunities for young people to access a broad range of activities.Schools sit at the heart of their community and there are some excellent examples of this happening. For example, the Deanery CE Academy in Swindon, opened in September 2019, where community access has been designed in the layout of this school.

Apprentices and Vocational Education

Ian Lavery: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department has taken to promote (a) vocational qualifications and (b) apprenticeships to students and young people.

Michelle Donelan: We are introducing T levels, a high-quality technical alternative to A levels to help young people get the high-wage, high-skill jobs of the future. With longer teaching hours, higher standards and a meaningful industry placement, T levels will be more rigorous and occupationally relevant than many current vocational courses.Alongside the introduction of T levels, we are reviewing post-16 qualifications at level 3 and below. The aim is to ensure that qualifications are necessary, have a distinct purpose, are high- quality and support progression.  Apprenticeships are a high-quality alternative path to a career for people of all ages and we are improving the quality of apprenticeships through making them longer, better, with more off-the job training and proper assessment at the end.We have established 4 National Colleges, which are leading the way in the design and delivery of higher technical skills training, ensuring that industries and sectors which are critical to our national economic growth, have the skills they need. We are investing up to £290 million of capital funding to enable every region in England to establish a high quality Institute of Technology. With state-of-the-art equipment and facilities, and employers in the driving seat, they will give businesses the skilled workforce they need to drive growth and productivity and get more people into rewarding jobs. It is important that students and young people have access to high-quality information and advice about their choices, including technical options and apprenticeships.In 2017 we introduced a new Careers Strategy, setting out a long-term plan to build a world class careers system that will help young people and adults choose the career that’s right for them. An important element of the strategy is the responsibility that schools and colleges must provide their students with a full picture of their options. This includes a new law introduced in January 2018, under which schools must allow technical education and apprenticeship providers into their schools to talk to pupils about their offer.We have also undertaken a range of activities to make students and young people aware of the benefits an apprenticeship can offer. Our apprenticeships campaign, Fire It Up, is working to promote apprenticeships to young people, demonstrating that they are an aspirational choice for anyone with passion and energy.We are also working with schools to promote apprenticeships to students. We have developed Amazing Apprenticeships, a website and resource portal for schools and teachers. In addition, we offer a free service to schools through the Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge (ASK) project to ensure that teachers have the knowledge and support to enable them to promote apprenticeships to their students. Last academic year the ASK programme reached over 300,000 students across 2,368 establishments and from September 2019 it has been extended to include years 7 to 9.

Apprentices: Taxation

Mr Edward Vaizey: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that employers in the screen industry use more of the apprenticeship levy funding they receive.

Michelle Donelan: We are working closely with the screen industry so that it can benefit from apprenticeships.The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Education are working with the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education to support the development of apprenticeship standards. Currently there are 48 approved standards available for delivery in the creative and digital sectors.From discussions with the screen sector, we recognise that it faces some challenges in spending available levy funds due to the dominance of project-based working in the sector. To overcome these challenges, we are working with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and ScreenSkills on an innovative Film and TV Apprenticeships pilot which will enable around 20 apprentices to benefit from hands-on experience on the sets of major films and TV shows. Launching in 2020, it will explore a new model for how high-quality apprenticeships can be used to deliver multiple placements on film and TV productions, as well as addressing skills shortages.In addition, we have increased the transfer cap from 10% to 25% enabling levy-paying employers to transfer funds to smaller employers or charities in order to support the development of skills in their supply chains or respond to skills shortages in their sectors.

Students: Loans

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of extending student loan eligibility to people in prison who have more than six years to run on their sentence.

Chris Skidmore: Prisoners set to be released within 6 years have been eligible for tuition fee loans with the consent of the prison authorities. There are no plans to change this policy.

Children in Care

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many of the looked-after children who were cared for in a friends and family foster placement were placed there under a section 20 of the Children Act 1989 voluntary agreement in (a) 31 March 2018, (b) 31 March 2017 and (c) March 2016.

Michelle Donelan: The number of looked-after children in foster placements with a relative or friend who were placed there under a section 20 of the Children Act 1989 voluntary agreement in (a) 31 March 2018, (b) 31 March 2017 and (c) March 2016 is shown in the following table: Children looked after in foster placements with relative or friend at 31 March1(Years ending 31 March 2016 to 2018)2016201720182,1101,8301,5601. Under a section 20 of the Children Act 1989 voluntary agreement.

Holiday Activities and Food Research Fund

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will extend the Holiday Activities and Food programme to cover school holidays in 2020.

Nick Gibb: The Holiday Activities and Food Programme will run again in 2020. The Department for Education has published an invitation to bid which closes on 13 December 2019. Further information is available here: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/2cd0c5d3-e34f-4040-b0c9-17188231346b.

Ministry of Justice

Prisons: Repairs and Maintenance

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the (a) key performance indicators are for Amey under the prison maintenance contracts and (b) average annual performance of Amey has been against those indicators.

Lucy Frazer: An error has been identified in the written answer given on 24 October 2019.The correct answer should have been:

Please see the accompanying document, which details the KPI regime for the facilities management contract HMPPS holds with Amey, as well as the recorded performance against these KPI’s averaged across the last 12 months for which this data is available (June 2017- May 2018). Contractor performance is robustly monitored and we will not hesitate to take action where standards fall short.



Amey KPIs and 12 Monthly Average performance
(Excel SpreadSheet, 19.77 KB)

Lucy Frazer: Please see the accompanying document, which details the KPI regime for the facilities management contract HMPPS holds with Amey, as well as the recorded performance against these KPI’s averaged across the last 12 months for which this data is available (June 2017- May 2018). Contractor performance is robustly monitored and we will not hesitate to take action where standards fall short.



Amey KPIs and 12 Monthly Average performance
(Excel SpreadSheet, 19.77 KB)

Pleural Plaques: Compensation

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans he has to re-establish the right to compensation for people in England and Wales who developed pleural plaques as a result of exposure to asbestos.

Wendy Morton: The Government has no plans to reopen the pleural plaques compensation scheme, which operated between 2 August 2010 and 1 August 2011. The scheme operated as an extra-statutory one, making £5000 payments on an ex-gratia basis to applicants who fulfilled the scheme’s criteria, namely that they were individuals who had begun, but not resolved, a legal claim for compensation for pleural plaques at the time of the House of Lords ruling in October 2007 in the case of Rothwell v Chemical & Insulating Co Ltd [2007] UKHL 39. That ruling had held that the occurrence of pleural plaques is not a compensatable disease. Eligibility for the scheme was limited to that category of people as they would have had an understandable expectation of receiving compensation when they began their claim, an expectation which would not have been shared by those diagnosed later.

Prisons

Mr Ranil Jayawardena: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce costs across the prison estate.

Lucy Frazer: It remains the case that we are investing in our prisons to deliver value for the taxpayer but, more importantly, rehabilitate offenders to reduce their likelihood of reoffending – which costs society around £18 billion each year. As part of the Government’s wider law and order agenda we have committed to:Creating an additional 10,000 modern, efficient prison places, to crack down on crime behind bars. This investment means prison places will become cheaper per place, per year.Investing £100 million to bolster security in jails, introducing tough airport-style security scanners, mobile phone detection and prevention technology, and anti-corruption and intelligence operations. This investment will help to reduce drugs and violence across the estate, leading to an overall reduction in costs for other public sector agencies associated with prisons, such as the police and the NHS.Spending an additional £156 million on maintenance of the prison estate, to update critical infrastructure such as fire systems and boilers, refurbish cells and showers and improve conditions for those living and working in prisons requiring the most urgent attention. Although we are significantly investing in prisons, we are continuing with efforts to drive efficiencies across the estate to ensure as much money as possible goes back into keeping our prisons safe, decent and secure. This includes empowering Governors to make local decisions on how to spend their budget in a way that creates the most value for money and efficiency, and through better use of technology including video conferencing; facial recognition technology; and kiosks. In addition, we want to support Governors in reaching out into communities to ensure that we join up across our system and work with others to address the needs of offenders to stop them coming into or returning to custody.

Prison Officers: Long Service Awards

Mrs Madeleine Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of changing the eligibility criteria for prison officer long service medals to enable officers employed in privately managed prisons to receive them; and if he will make a statement.

Lucy Frazer: The Prison Service’s (operational duties) Long Service and Good Conduct Medal is awarded to operational staff in UK Prison Services on completion of 20 years continuous service. The medals are awarded by HM The Queen and aligns operational public sector prison staff with other comparable other front line public services such as the police, fire and ambulance services, and the Armed Forces.HMPPS has previously approached the Cabinet Office in relation to making this medal available to staff in private sector prisons. The Cabinet Office confirmed that there are a series of protocols concerning the issue of medals of this type, one of which is that they can only be awarded to staff working in public sector prisons (civil servants) and not those prisons run by private sector companies.

Ministry of Justice: Sodexo

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what (a) fines and (b) other financial penalties have been paid to his Department by (i) Sodexo and (ii) Sodexo subsidiaries for failures to meet contractual obligations in each year since 2010.

Chris Philp: This PQ has been interpreted to mean the level of financial remedies that the Ministry of Justice has been in receipt of from Sodexo, or Sodexo subsidiaries, in relation to failure to meet contractual performance obligations since 2010. We manage all of our privately managed prison contracts with Sodexo, or Sodexo subsidiaries, robustly and deal with any performance issues in accordance with the mechanisms of the contracts. Privately managed prison providers achieve the majority of their contractual targets; however, we will not hesitate to take action where standards fall short. For privately managed prisons the total value of financial remedies imposed for each financial year has been provided and is included in the below table:Financial YearValue of Financial Remedy2010/2011£48,0002011/2012 £02012/2013£103,0912013/2014£86,1532014/2015£70,3812015/2016£273,0562016/2017£458,5162017/2018£451,3352018/2019£667,9712019/2020 (Q1 only)£15,027 For CRCs the total value of financial remedies imposed for each financial year has been provided and is included in the below table:Financial YearValue of Financial Remedy2015/2016£329,250.842016/2017£1,029,755.432017/2018£116,310.202018/2019£113,390.62 For facilities management contracts the total value of financial remedies imposed for each financial year has been provided and is included in the below table:Calendar YearValue of Financial Remedy2018£107,0002019 (Year to date)£31,500

Ministry of Justice: Serco

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what (a) fines and (b) other financial penalties have been paid to his Department by (i) Serco and (ii) Serco subsidiaries for failures to meet contractual obligations in each year since 2010.

Chris Philp: This PQ has been interpreted to mean the level of financial remedies that the Ministry of Justice has been in receipt of from Serco, or Serco subsidiaries, in relation to failure to meet contractual performance obligations since 2010.The Ministry of Justice has been in receipt of the following financial remedies from Serco in relation to failure to meet contractual performance obligations since 2010: We manage all of our contracts with Serco robustly and deal with any performance issues in accordance with the mechanisms of the contracts. Overall our Serco Contracts perform well and the performance management mechanisms in our contracts are effective in addressing any performance concerns.For privately managed prisons the total value of financial remedies imposed for each financial year has been provided and is included in the below table:Financial YearValue of Financial Remedy2010/2011£35,9822011/2012 £44,6362012/2013£42,3372013/2014£190,5212014/2015£293,2032015/2016£357,0402016/2017£568,4712017/2018£162,7172018/2019£91,7032019/2020 (Q1 reported only£0 For the Prison Escort and Custody Service (PECS) the total value of financial remedies imposed for each financial year has been provided and is included in the below table:Financial YearValue of Financial Remedy2010/2011£157,0002011/2012£315,0002012/2013£207,0002013/2014£478,0002014/2015£578,0002015/2016£625,0002016/2017£525,0002017/2018£445,0002018/2019£210,0002019/2020 (Year to date)£9,000 For the Hassockfield STC the total value of financial remedies imposed for each financial year has been provided and is included in the below table:Financial YearValue of Financial Remedy2010/2011£02011/2012£02012/2013£9902013/2014£2,250

Judiciary

Yasmin Qureshi: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many days (a) recorders and (b) judges have sat in each of the last 12 months.

Chris Philp: The official statistics for judge sitting days (tables 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3 of the Civil Justice Statistics Quarterly, January to March 2019) were withdrawn on 5 September 2019, due to data discrepancies that were discovered after publication on 6 June 2019 and deemed potentially misleading to users. These discrepancies remain under investigation and, in line with the Code of Practice on Statistics, the Chief Statistician and Head of Profession decided to withdraw these tables until the investigations were complete. The revised figures will be published in due course, and will provide the total sitting days in Family, Civil and Crown courts.

Courts

Yasmin Qureshi: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of (a) court rooms and (b) courts were sitting on each day from January 1 2019 to 20 October 2019 in all criminal courts.

Chris Philp: The information requested about what proportion of (a) court rooms and (b) courts were sitting on each day from January 1 2019 to 20 October 2019 in all criminal courts could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Criminal Proceedings: Translation Services

Yasmin Qureshi: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases have been adjourned due to a lack of translation or interpreting services in each week since the start of 2019 in all criminal courts.

Chris Philp: The Ministry does not hold weekly statistical figures for the information requested.However, central information does exist on the number of trials listed in the criminal courts which were adjourned as a result of interpreters being unavailable in quarterly figures. This data is published in Criminal Court Statistics, “Trial effectiveness at the criminal courts tool”. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-court-statistics Latest published statistics are available to June 2019. Data covering the period July-September 2019 is provisionally due for publication December 2019. Our most recent statistics show the total number of language service requests are at their highest level since the new contract was introduced in 2016 and the vast majority of these were fulfilled.

Courts: Finance

Faisal Rashid: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will increase funding for (a) magistrates courts and (b) county courts to prevent court closures.

Chris Philp: HM Courts & Tribunals Service assesses the court and tribunal estate against its estates principles - ensuring access to justice, delivering value for money and enabling efficiency in longer-term. The decision to close any court is not taken lightly – it only happens following full public consultation and only when effective access to justice can be maintained. Courts that have closed were either underused, dilapidated or too close to one another with every penny of those closed since 2016 reinvested in the justice system. We have always been clear that our Reform Programme will result in the need for fewer court and tribunal buildings and that this will only happen when there is sound evidence that people are using them less. There are currently no active proposals to close further crown or magistrates’ courts beyond those already announced.

Ministry of Justice: Contracts

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what data his Department holds on the performance of companies with which his Department holds contracts against key performance indicators.

Chris Philp: The MoJ regards well-managed contracts as fundamental to the proper functioning of the justice system, and a vital part of court and prison reform plans. The MoJ’s contract management teams closely monitor providers to ensure they fulfil their contractual commitments to maintain service delivery and value for money.The Department conducts monthly assessments of the performance of its high priority contracts using a high-level scorecard. The scorecard assesses the performance of these contracts along 8 key themes:Contractual Compliance;Contract Management Processes;Finance;Operations;Risk;Disputes;Supplier views; andCustomer views.

Prison Officers

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the number of prison officers.

Lucy Frazer: Our hard-working officers play a crucial role in keeping prisons safe and transforming offenders’ lives, and ultimately make sure the public is protected. We recognise the need to recruit and retain staff to keep our prisons secure. We have invested significantly in increase staff numbers, recruiting an additional 4,366 (full time equivalent) prison officers between October 2016 and June 2019, surpassing our original target of 2,500. We will continue to recruit officers to ensure prisons are safe and decent. We’re giving staff the tools they need to do the job safely – rolling out PAVA incapacitant spray, and investing £100m to bolster security, in addition to £70 million announced previously, to fund tough airport-style security that will clamp down on the illicit items which fuel violence and hinder rehabilitation.

Prison Officers: Labour Turnover

Richard Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of employment conditions for prison officers on retention of prison officers.

Lucy Frazer: We want prison officers to stay and progress their careers. We have improved induction processes to ease transition into the job, provide care and support for our staff and offer additional training. These measures are part of the work we are doing directly with Governors to address local issues and ensure experienced staff and new recruits remain in the service.

Prisons: Restraint Equipment

Imran Hussain: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officers in each prison are deployed with rigid handcuffs.

Lucy Frazer: We are rolling out rigid-bar handcuffs to prison officers as part of our continued focus on improving safety and reducing violence.Before a prison can deploy rigid bar handcuffs, all uniformed staff must be trained in their use. At the moment, only HMP Stoke Heath has completed its training, and 153 staff have been issued with rigid-bar handcuffs. At HMP Brinsford 43 staff have completed their training, with a further 13 to be trained by the end of this week. Other prisons are also at various stages of delivering their training.In addition to these deployments, rigid-bar handcuffs are also carried by staff of the National Tactical Response Group and by Regional Search and Dog teams, as part of the operational response to incidents.

Prisoners: Free School Meals

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of the prison population is estimated to have been eligible for free school meals while they were in education.

Lucy Frazer: The information requested is not currently collated by HM Prison and Probation Service.Upon arrival in custody, offenders are presented with numerous introductory questions to assist with their reception. However, this does not include historical information regarding their elibility for free school meals.

Prisoners: Qualifications

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of the prison population left school without any formal qualifications.

Lucy Frazer: The information requested is not held by the Department. The Department for Education publishes data on English & maths assessments undertaken when someone is received into prison. This can be found via the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-education-and-training Previous MoJ studies have shown as many as 47% of those entering prison reporting as having no formal qualifications. As stated in our Education and Employment Strategy, published in May 2018, we recognise the importance of providing opportunities for learning for all. Such opportunities are irrespective of previous educational attainment, and are an important part of helping to change lives and reduce the risks of reoffending.

Prison Sentences

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of the population of (a) Ashfield, (b) Nottinghamshire and (c) England has received a (i) custodial prison sentence and (ii) suspended prison sentence at some point in their lives.

Lucy Frazer: This information is not readily available and would require individual court files to be checked for the required information which would incur disproportionate costs.

Courts

Yasmin Qureshi: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many sitting court days there have been in each year since 2010.

Chris Philp: The official statistics for judge sitting days (tables 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3 of the Civil Justice Statistics Quarterly, January to March 2019) were withdrawn on 5 September 2019, due to data discrepancies that were discovered after publication on 6 June 2019 and deemed potentially misleading to users. These discrepancies remain under investigation and, in line with the Code of Practice on Statistics, the Chief Statistician and Head of Profession decided to withdraw these tables until the investigations were complete. The revised figures will be published in due course, and will provide the total sitting days in Family, Civil and Crown courts.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Loneliness

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to page 43 of the Government's loneliness strategy, what progress his Department has made on funding research into the impact of community-led housing and cohousing on loneliness.

Esther McVey: The Department has recently tendered for a research contract to explore the effectiveness with which community-led housing (and cohousing in particular) addresses loneliness. Specifically, the impact of housing interventions on loneliness; understand the impact of community-led housing and co-housing on reducing loneliness across all ages; and to explore best practice in housing schemes that promote social cohesion.

Muslims: Discrimination

Yasmin Qureshi: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Integrated Communities Action Plan published in February 2019, whether his Department has facilitated meetings between the Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group and the Independent Press Standards Organisation to help them to develop guidance for editors and journalists to tackle unnecessary negative portrayals of Muslims in the media.

Jake Berry: Members of the Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group continue to engage with the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) on the development of guidance for editors and journalists on the reporting of Muslims in the media. Members are currently working with IPSO to develop and refine the guidance. This work is an important contribution towards commitments set out in the Integrated Communities Action Plan and Government’s Hate Crime Action Plan refresh.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Brexit

Mary Glindon: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what equality impact assessment his Department has undertaken on the selection of staff for normal hours day time working in the Departmental Operations Centre on the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Jake Berry: Working in our DOC under a normal hours day time arrangement is no different to other such arrangements for roles elsewhere in the Department and does not require a specific or separate equality impact assessment. All staff deployed in our DOC will be assigned to roles commensurate with their grade and will be provided with appropriate training and support. Our existing policies and proactive diversity and inclusion agenda ensures all staff are treated fairly including those with protected characteristics.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Brexit

Ms Lisa Forbes: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of staff his Department will need to work on a (a) two and (b) three shift pattern to staff the Departmental Operations Centre in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

Jake Berry: The current estimates are that a two shift working arrangement in our Departmental Operations Centre would require 389 people and a three shift working arrangement would require 621 people in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

Housing: Construction

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of homes that will be built in each of the next five years.

Esther McVey: The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government does not publish estimates of the number of homes that will be built in future years. As part of its latest Economic and Fiscal Outlook published in March 2019, the Office for Budget Responsibility produced forecasts of private enterprise housing completions and net additions to the housing stock for each quarter until the end of the forecast period in 2023-24.The government is committed to build the homes that the country needs and is aiming to deliver 300,000 homes a year on average by the mid-2020s. Over 1.3 million new homes have been delivered since 2010, including over 430,000 affordable homes. In the latest year, over 222,000 additional homes were delivered – the highest level in all but one of the last 31 years.

Local Plans: Oxfordshire

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with Oxfordshire County Council officers on that council potentially taking over responsibility for South Oxfordshire District Council's local plan.

Esther McVey: The Secretary of State has not conducted any discussions with Oxfordshire County Council about taking over responsibility for South Oxfordshire District Council’s local plan.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Brexit

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many and what proportion of civil servants in his Department have been internally reassigned to preparations for the UK leaving the EU from oversight of local plans (a) in the last month, (b) in the last six months, (c) in the last 12 months and (d) since the 2016 EU referendum.

Jake Berry: We do not have a record of the number of staff who have been internally reassigned to preparations for the UK leaving the EU against a definition of ‘oversight of local plans’ or for the specific time periods specified.   We can confirm that throughout the time periods specified the highest number of staff redeployed from other duties was in week commencing 21 October 2019 when a total of 219 Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) staff were working within our Departmental Operations Centre (DOC), approximately 9.5 per cent of all MHCLG staff.   We did not separately record the number of staff working in the DOC prior to the government’s decision to increase no deal preparations in December 2018 and at that time the number of people working in the DOC was approximately 40, approximately 2 per cent of all MHCLG staff.

Department for Work and Pensions

Universal Credit

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the six-month limit on the easement of work-related requirements for universal credit for bereavement of a partner or child.

Will Quince: When a Universal Credit (UC) claimant suffers a bereavement there are easements to work-related requirement which can be applied. These will be discussed and agreed, on an individual basis, with the claimant’s Work Coach or Case Manager. In some circumstances payment of UC, that would otherwise reduce or stop following a bereavement, can continue for a short time. This is called a ‘Bereavement run-on’, and may be applied when a partner or dependent child dies. The ‘Bereavement run-on’ results in UC continuing to be paid as if there had been no change of circumstances for the assessment period in which the death occurs and the following two assessment periods.

Universal Credit: Disqualification

Neil Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Government response to the Work and Pensions Committee’s Nineteenth Report of Session 2017–19, Benefit sanctions. HC1949, when her Department plans to publish its evaluation on whether the sanctions regime within universal credit is effective at supporting claimants to search for work; and what the reason is for the time taken to publish that evaluation.

Mims Davies: The Department will look to publish its evaluation by the end of 2019.

Maternity Allowance

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 24 October to Question 2694 on Maternity Allowance, on what date her Department's messaging changed; and what the estimated number of days was in relation to that change.

Mims Davies: The Department for Work and Pensions has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Universal Credit: Fraud

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the debt incurred by individuals as a result of being scammed into claiming an advance for universal credit.

Guy Opperman: On the 18th September 2019 we brought in changes to the application process for Universal Credit advances to protect innocent people from these scams. In order to determine whether an individual is liable to repay an advance, we look at the strength of evidence provided. Our investigations play an important part in establishing whether a claimant has had any involvement. In some cases, we will be able to establish that a claimant was entirely innocent and did not benefit from the payment, in which case we would not seek to recover the money from them. As each case is different and is judged solely on its merits, and as our investigations are still ongoing, it is not possible to accurately estimate the amount individuals could be asked to repay.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Air Pollution

Sue Hayman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Answer of 8 October to Question 293612, what air quality programmes and deliverables are included under which headings; and if she will publish the (a) resource departmental expenditure limit, (b) capital departmental expenditure limit and (c) annually managed expenditure funding allocated to air quality programmes and deliverables for 2019-20.

Sue Hayman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Answer 8 October to Question 293610, what specific programmes and deliverables to tackle waste and promote recycling are included under which headings; and if she will publish the (a) Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit, (b) Capital Departmental Expenditure Limit and (c) Annually Managed Expenditure funding allocated to each of those programmes for 2019-20.

Sue Hayman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Answer of 8 October to Question 293609, what (a) programmes and (b) deliverables were included in the Food, sustainable and competitive farming programme under the heading Food and Farming; and if she will publish the (i) Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit, (ii) Capital Departmental Expenditure Limit and (iii) Annually Managed Expenditure funding allocated to each of those programmes for 2019-20.

George Eustice: Please see the table below that sets out 2019-20 planned funding and key deliverables for specific programmes. Negative figures show overall planned savings (this is where a small adjustment is needed to ensure the budget as a whole balances at the beginning of the financial year, these savings (negative balances) will be off-set against a positive budget later in the year when savings/priorities are identified) or income.  2019-20Programme and key deliverablesSpend TypeSub-ProgrammeResource (£'000)Capital (£'000)Natural environment and atmosphere improvement programmes Deliverables: Deliver commitments in the Nitrogen Dioxide Air Quality Plan, the wider Clean Air Strategy and the National Air Pollution Control Programme to improve how information on air quality is provided, including better access to air quality forecasts and health advice. Monitor air quality through the UK’s air quality network and reduce emissions from permitted sites through the Industrial Emissions and Medium Combustion Plant Directives.Departmental Expenditure LimitAir Quality & Industrial Emissions86,389-222Waste Deliverables: Show leadership on tackling plastic pollution, with the aim to clean up the country and achieve a substantial reduction in litter. Take forward measures to reform Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging, and ensure consistent and frequent collections for household rubbish and recycling. Implement new regulations to tackle waste crime, stop illegal waste activities and reduce illegal waste sites and marine plastic pollution through domestic, regional and global action.Departmental Expenditure LimitWaste and recycling28,60210,369Food, sustainable and competitive farming Deliverables: Making the UK a great place to start, thrive and grow as a farming or food and drink business, and help our businesses to deliver high quality products to more consumer markets across the globe. Continued delivery of the Rural Development Programme for England, seeking to improve environmental quality, support farm productivity improvements and drive rural economic growth. This programme of work is underpinned by science and evidence which delivers tactical, strategic and applied R&D, statistical and economic analysis and behavioural insights.Departmental Expenditure LimitFuture farming and land use67,4620Food chain programme17,0304,490

Environment Protection: Finance

Sue Hayman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Answer of 8 October 2019 to Questions 292921 and 292922, what specific programmes, projects and deliverables are covered by (a) Arms Length Bodies Partnership And Public Appointments, (b) Natural Environment Policy Director & Support, (c) Air Quality & Industrial Emissions, (d) Nature Improvement Programme, (e) Environment Quality Portfolio Office, (f) EU Environment, (g) Environment Quality Commercial, (h) Climate, Noise, Data & Information, (i) Water, Flood, Chemical, Biological, Radiological And Nuclear Emergencies, (j) Wildlife, International, Climate And Forestry Programme and (k) Wildlife International, Climate And Forestry; and if she will publish the (i) Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit, (ii) Capital Departmental Expenditure Limit and (iii) Annually Managed Expenditure funding allocated to each of those programmes, projects and deliverables for 2019-20 with the gross and net spending and the source of any planned income.

George Eustice: Please see the table below that sets out 2019-20 planned funding and key deliverables for specific programmes. Negative figures show overall planned savings (this is where a small adjustment is needed to ensure the budget as a whole balances at the beginning of the financial year, these savings (negative balances) will be off-set against a positive budget later in the year when savings/priorities are identified) or income.  Programme and key deliverablesSpend TypeSub-ProgrammeSpend categoryResource (£'000)Capital (£'000)Arms Length Bodies Partnership And Public Appointments Deliverables: This covers 3 of Defra’s arms length bodies as follows: SFIA is a non-departmental public body that supports the sea food industry. CEFAS is an executive agency of Defra. It leads in marine science and technology, providing innovative solutions for the aquatic environment, biodiversity and food security. MMO is a non-departmental public body that licences, regulates and plans marine activities in the seas around the UK so that they are carried out in a sustainable way.Annually Managed Expenditure LimitSea Fish Industry Authority (SFIA)Expenditure10,7760Income-10,7150Departmental Expenditure LimitCentre for Environment, fisheries and aquaculture science (CEFAS)Expenditure44,7762,372Income-30,4000Marine Management Organisation (MMO)Expenditure20,7130Income-7,2650Natural Environment Policy Director & Support Deliverables: This budget covers the running costs of the Natural Environment Directorates Portfolio Office, managing and assisting the delivery of all the Natural Environment directorates objectives and projects. It also includes budget to cover the costs of a closed pension scheme and funding that goes to Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC).Annually Managed Expenditure LimitNatural Environment Policy Directors OfficeExpenditure-4650Departmental Expenditure LimitNatural Environment Policy Directors OfficeExpenditure3,3510Income-1,8690Air Quality & Industrial Emissions Deliverables: Deliver commitments in the Nitrogen Dioxide Air Quality Plan, the wider Clean Air Strategy and the National Air Pollution Control Programme to improve how information on air quality is provided, including better access to air quality forecasts and health advice. Monitor air quality through the UK’s air quality network and reduce emissions from permitted sites through the Industrial Emissions and Medium Combustion Plant Directives.Departmental Expenditure LimitAir Quality & Industrial EmissionsExpenditure9,276-222Air QualityExpenditure77,1130Nature Improvement Programme Deliverables: Supports the Environment 25 year plan which sets out how we will improve the environment over a generation – by creating richer habitats for wildlife, improving air and water quality, and curbing the scourge of plastic in the world’s oceans.Departmental Expenditure LimitEnvironment analysis unitExpenditure3,1411,653Environment 25 year planExpenditure1,3940Environment Quality (EQ) Portfolio Office Deliverables: A central resource of programme management, day to day finance management and administrative expertise to the directorate. The team will typically manage all EQ-wide commissions, particularly, those from the Defra Corporate centre, including reporting and business planning. Alongside this it will provide assistance with recruitment processes, including leading and managing EQ-wide exercises. The team can also provide guidance and best practice on carrying out programme and project activitiesDepartmental Expenditure LimitEQ Portfolio OfficeExpenditure8400EU Environment Deliverables: Effective management of chemicals and pesticides to safeguard people and the environmentDepartmental Expenditure LimitEU EnvironmentExpenditure5,980509Environment Quality Commercial Deliverables: The Waste PFI project, Local Partnerships Grants and contracts.Departmental Expenditure LimitFlood & Water Commercial PolicyExpenditure118,2470Income-2,0300Climate, Noise, Data & Information Deliverables: This is now included under the climate change element of Wildlife, International, Climate and Forestry Programme. The deliverables are explained in this section below.Departmental Expenditure LimitClimate ChangeExpenditure-8460Water, Flood, Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Emergencies Deliverables: This covers, the UK’s preparedness to emergencies pertaining to Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear; Flood and Water emergencies; Better flood forecasting  Departmental Expenditure LimitWater and Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear and EmergenciesExpenditure3,1220Frontline Line Service - Government Decontamination ServiceExpenditure1,3660Wildlife, International, Climate and Forestry Programme Deliverables: Encourage thriving plants and wildlife Work internationally to halt biodiversity loss, including driving global action on the Illegal Wildlife Trade, as a Party to the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Dasgupta Review of the Economics of Biodiversity. Fully implement the Ivory Act, bringing into force the UK ban on ivory sales. Develop a Nature Recovery Network including creation or restoration of 500,000 hectares of wildlife rich habitat as part of the new Nature Strategy. Protect, improve and expand England’s woodlands, including planting 11 million trees this Parliament and keeping the public forest estate in trust for the nation. Use resources from nature more sustainably and efficiently Publish the English Tree Strategy to set out how we intend to use a natural capital approach to rural and urban forestry to maximise the biodiversity, water, climate, noise and other benefits trees can provide. Mitigate and adapt to climate change Deliver statutory climate adaptation obligations under UK Climate Change Act and drive delivery of the National Adaptation Plan to strengthen resilience to climate change.Annually Managed Expenditure LimitWildlifeExpenditure-500 Departmental Expenditure LimitClimate & ForestryExpenditure2,6263,368Frontline Line Service – Official development assistanceExpenditure42,77035,370International Biodiversity and EnvironmentExpenditure8440International StrategyExpenditure3,3740WildlifeExpenditure5,5280Wildlife International Climate and Forestry Directors OfficeExpenditure-1,7520

Agriculture: Northern Ireland

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what financial support the Government will provide to farmers in Northern Ireland in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

George Eustice: As a responsible Government, we have been working with our DAERA colleagues to minimise any disruption to farmers in the event of a no deal. We have made it clear that we will support vulnerable sectors through Government intervention in a no deal, should this be necessary. We will be monitoring the sectors which may be exposed to short-term difficulties as a result of Exit closely to identify early signs of market disturbance, allowing us to intervene swiftly if necessary.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Jainism and Zoroastrianism

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when representatives of the (a) Jain and (b) Zoroastrian community were invited to national events organised by his Department in each of the last two years.

George Eustice: Ministers have attended a number of key events coordinated by Jain and Zoroastrian organisations, and officials have invited representatives from both communities to participate in roundtable discussions where relevant issues are discussed.The Jain and Zoroastrian communities of this country have made and continue to make a positive contribution to life in the UK. The Government values this contribution enormously.

Horse Racing: Animal Welfare

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent comparative assessment she has made of the number of racehorse fatalities (a) in the first nine months of 2019 and (b) in the same period in 2018; what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the British Horseracing Authority in reducing annual levels of racehorse fatalities; and with reference to the Answer of 16 April 2019 to Question 242198 on Horse Racing: Animal Welfare, what recent discussions officials in her Department have had with the British Horseracing Authority.

Zac Goldsmith: The official annual statistics on fatality rates are published on the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) website, in an approach endorsed by the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee. We would expect the fatality rates for 2019 to be published by BHA in the New Year. Officials regularly meet with a wide range of stakeholders, including the BHA.

Horse Racing: Animal Welfare

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make it her policy to set up new independent welfare body to protect race horses from abuse.

Zac Goldsmith: The Horse Welfare Board (HWB) was formed in March 2019 and is currently developing a comprehensive equine welfare strategy, covering the whole life of the racehorse, which will be published in the coming months. The Government will stay in regular contact with the industry and the new HWB. We will continue to press them for improvements in racehorse welfare and a reduction in the number of fatalities.

European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development

Gillian Keegan: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to approve the final national call for applications to the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development; and whether she has made an assessment of the trends in the time it takes for applications to be assessed and approved by her Department and the Rural Payments Agency.

George Eustice: My department is aiming to open a new round of national-level Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) Growth Programme calls for business development, food processing and tourism infrastructure projects in early November. This will enable all stages of the project application and assessment process to be completed in time for funding to be awarded, in line with the Government’s guarantee to honour all funding commitments signed by the end December 2020.

Beverage Containers: Recycling

Sandy Martin: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the potential annual (a) costs and (b) savings accruing to local authority finances of a deposit return scheme.

Rebecca Pow: The introduction of a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) is expected to increase recycling and reduce littering of the drinks containers in-scope. The greenhouse gas emissions reduction associated with this is 2.9 metric tonnes of CO2e over the ten-year appraisal period. The Net Present Value of a DRS for drinks containers is estimated in the initial impact assessment to be more than £2 billion over the appraisal period for the ‘all-in’ option, and £250 million for the ‘on-the-go’ option. We will continue to refine our analysis of the costs and benefits as we receive more evidence and develop further policy options.

Beverage Containers: Recycling

Sandy Martin: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she had made of the implications for her policies of the Impact Assessment entitled, Introducing a Deposit Return Scheme on beverage containers, published on 15 February 2019.

Rebecca Pow: We published an impact assessment that detailed the costs and savings to local authority finances, including possible reduction in litter cleaning costs and loss of material revenues. However, under the reformed packaging producer responsibility system, packaging producers will be responsible for the costs of dealing with the packaging waste they produce, so the identified kerbside costs and benefits are expected to fall to packaging producers, rather than placing a burden on local authorities. The Government has also committed to funding any additional net costs that the new policies will bring to local authorities. We will continue to refine our analysis of the costs and benefits as we receive more evidence and as we develop further policy options.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Living Wage

Matthew Pennycook: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many staff in her Department are paid less than the London Living Wage; and what requirements her Department places on contractors to pay the London Living Wage to London-based staff.

George Eustice: This Government is committed to paying people a decent living wage, which is being addressed through the statutory National Living Wage (NLW). In April 2019, the NLW increased to £8.21 per hour, handing a full-time worker a further £690 annual pay rise. By 2024 the NLW will rise to £10.50 per hour, reaching 66% of median UK earnings. The scope will be expanded to everyone aged 21 and over and is expected to benefit over 4 million low paid workers. There are 85 staff in core-Defra, based in the National pay region, paid less than the London Living Wage (LLW) rate of £10.55 per hour, as set out by the Living Wage Foundation (LWF). There are less than 5 staff based in the London pay region paid less than the LLW. There will be no staff based in the London pay region paid less than the LLW once the 2019 Defra pay award (effective from 1 July 2019) has been implemented. This is expected to be in November pay. The Government will always award contracts on the basis of the best value for money for the taxpayer. The service providers contracted to carry out third party cleaning contracts for Defra managed buildings, including those of our executive agencies, are provided through an outsourced Total Facilities Management contract with Interserve FM. The contract requires Interserve FM to pay all employees the living wage as defined by the LWF. The Facilities Management supplier holds information on the rate of remuneration of its staff. Members of the LWF pay the voluntary real living wage, which is higher than the statutory rate and includes a higher rate for London based staff. The LWF rates (published online) can be found on the link below: https://www.livingwage.org.uk/

Dogs

Angela Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) updating and (b) consolidating the regulations on dog control.

Zac Goldsmith: The Government considers that the powers and measures contained within dangerous dog legislation allow enforcers such as police and local authorities to take the necessary action in order to prevent and tackle incidents of dangerous dogs. Local initiatives such as Local Environmental Awareness on Dogs (LEAD) can also be adopted in areas where police, local authorities and other interested parties can come together to promote responsible dog ownership. In addition, early intervention measures such as Community Protection Notices can be issued by local authority officers or police to anyone causing low level anti-social behaviour involving a dog. The Government last reviewed the law on dangerous dogs in 2014 and made a number of changes. The changes included extending the scope of the offence of allowing a dog to be dangerously out of control from public places to all places; increasing the maximum penalties for allowing a dog to be dangerously out of control; when a dog causes injury or death and when a dog attacks an assistance dog. The Government realises the importance of quality research to help inform its policy, and in November 2018 Defra commissioned further research in collaboration with Middlesex University to look at responsible ownership across all breeds of dog. The research will consider different approaches and the effectiveness of current dog control measures. The research will also seek to identify and examine the factors and situations that may cause dog attacks and how to promote responsible dog ownership.

Home Office

British Nationality: Assessments

Alex Chalk: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that the Life in the UK citizenship test questions are intelligible and accessible to applicants of all backgrounds and age groups.

Seema Kennedy: The Life in the UK test is based on the Life in the UK handbook, “Life in the UK: a guide for new residents”. The test is administered by PSI on behalf of the Home Office. The questions were set with the assistance of linguistic experts and professional question writers.The tests have a number of accessibility features which are available to all candidates. These include the ability to adjust settings and use audio. Additional tailored access arrangements can be provided by test centres.

Immigration: Families

Alex Norris: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to extend Family Immigration Rules for Dependent Relatives to include British Citizens intending to return to the UK with their dependent relative.

Seema Kennedy: The family Immigration Rules set out the requirements to be met to allow any adult dependant relative of a British citizen to come to the UK. The applicant must be outside the UK and in most cases, the sponsor will be in the UK.The adult dependant relative rules, together with the policy on exceptional circumstances, ensure that leave can be granted for those who demonstrate that, as a result of age, illness or disability, there is a level of long-term personal care required that can only be provided in the UK by their British relative who is here, or who is intending to return here with their dependant relative.

Immigration: Windrush Generation

Afzal Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions her Department has had with the office of Wendy Williams on a timetable for taking delivery of the final report of the Windrush lessons learned review.

Seema Kennedy: The Windrush Lessons Learned Review is an independent review, and all engagement must respect this independence. As expected for this type of review, the Department and the review team have engaged routinely and will continue to use this engagement to confirm the timetable for delivery of the final report.

Immigration: EU Nationals

Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate she has made of the number of elderly and vulnerable applicants to the EU Settlement Scheme; and what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of support provided to those applicants.

Brandon Lewis: The number of applications to the EU Settled Status scheme are regularly monitored and reviewed against forecasts.There is a range of direct and indirect support available for vulnerable EU citizens. This ranges from the telephone helpline available where citizens and their carers and helpers can discuss any aspect of the application with a trained caseworker at any point during the process.For those who need assistance with IT, the Home Office has put in place an Assisted Digital solution which provides support over the phone, at one of around 300 local centres across the UK or at home with a trained tutor.We have also provided up to £9 million of grant funding in this financial year to 57 voluntary and community sector organisations across the UK. These organisations are being funded and supported by the Home Office to deliver practical assistance to vulnerable or at-risk EU citizens in applying to the scheme. More than 40 of the organisations included the provision of support for older people in their bid for funding. Further information can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/eu-settlement-scheme-community-support-for-vulnerable-citizens/list-of-organisations We have also provided a paper application form for those whose specific individual needs require it. The Home Office is working with a range of other government departments and stakeholders to identify how we can best support vulnerable adults with significant care and support needs, including those in care homes.

Police Interrogation: Standards

Nic Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to make it a requirement for police forces to adhere to a structured interview protocol.

Kit Malthouse: The use of specific techniques, within lawful bounds, remains an operational matter for chief constables. We will continue to support the police to ensure they can effectively investigate crime and protect the public.

Home Office: Pay

Chris Stephens: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the pay system in her Department has been changed to take account of the Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling on Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council v Mr G Willetts and Others on holiday pay and voluntary overtime; and whether affected workers in her Department have been given back pay as a result of that ruling.

Victoria Atkins: The Home Office currently has a form of Holiday Pay allowance built into the pay system. The Home Office is aware of the Employment Appeal Tribunal referred to in the Question, and the implications for our approach to pay. The Department has signalled to the Trades Unions in Summer 2019 that it intends to open negotiations on this subject later in 2019. Decisions on back pay will be taken as part of the negotiations process.

Immigrants: Glasgow Central

Alison Thewliss: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people in Glasgow Central are designated as having no recourse to public funds.

Victoria Atkins: The no recourse to public funds (NRPF) condition is applied to the leave to enter and remain of most migrants in the UK as a legitimate means of maintaining and protecting our economic resources.Information about NRPF is held on individual case files and to provide this information would require a manual search and would exceed the disproportionate cost threshold. Wider population data, such as that requested in relation to Glasgow Central, is not held by the Home Office.

British Nationality: Children

Rushanara Ali: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what use is made of the £1,012 fee when an application to register a child as British is rejected.

Seema Kennedy: Refunds are not provided when applications are refused. It is made clear that the fee paid is for the consideration of an application and is payable regardless of the decision made.Fee income is retained by the Home Office and funds the direct and indirect costs associated with the provision of chargeable visa and immigration services, and also contributes towards the cost of the wider immigration system, as permitted under Section 68(9) of the 2014 Immigration Act.

Immigration: EU Nationals

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much of the £9 million funding for voluntary organisations to support vulnerable EU nationals applying to the EU Settlement Scheme has been allocated; and how much funding has been allocated to each voluntary organisation.

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will extend beyond March 2020 the period of funding for voluntary organisations to support vulnerable EU nationals in applying for the EU Settlement Scheme.

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what equality impact assessment has been made of the extent to which each protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2009 has been allocated funding through voluntary organisations to support vulnerable EU nationals applying to the EU Settlement Scheme.

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans are in place to ensure that funding for voluntary organisations to support vulnerable EU nationals in applying to the EU Settlement Scheme is allocated adequately to geographical areas where individuals with certain protected characteristics are concentrated.

Brandon Lewis: Details of the grant funding and payment allocations remain commercial in confidence therefore the funding amount allocated, and the amounts to each voluntary organisation cannot be disclosed.All grant funded organisations are required to submit quarterly returns, reporting on outcomes to the Home Office. The Home Office is currently evaluating the quarter two return. Consideration of the need and effectiveness of any further funding will be done thereafter.A policy equality statement has been completed for the EU Settlement Scheme ensuring the scheme is accessible to all and does not discriminate based on any protected characteristic. The grant fund was open to any voluntary and community sector organisations.The fund concentrates on delivering a service based on supporting vulnerabilities such as, but not limited to, homelessness, disability, age, victims of domestic violence and trafficking. The organisations that were successful in their bid for funding demonstrated their ability to provide practical support and outreach to the most vulnerable EEA citizens and family members of EEA citizens.Funding was awarded based on expected numbers of vulnerable people that could be supported by the organisation, the geographical reach of the organisation and their ability to mobilise within the required timeframes.

Police: Safety

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking in addition to her urgent review of the safety of police officers to protect officers on the front line.

Kit Malthouse: We are committed to ensuring that the police have the support and protection they need, and we welcome the NPCC-led Officer Safety Review. The Government has outlined its commitment via the Queens Speech to bring forward a Police Protection Bill to give police the support and protection the police need to do their jobs effectively and safely.We have set out a vision for a new Police Covenant, recognising the bravery and commitment of officers who work night and day to keep us safe. We plan to focus on physical protection for officers, their health and wellbeing and support for their families.The Government has also recently announced a £10 million ring fenced fund to support chief constables to buy more Tasers to ensure frontline officers are better protected. £10 million in ring fenced funding could mean over 10,000 more police officers in England and Wales will be able to carry the devices to help protect themselves and the public from harm.

Hampshire Constabulary: ICT

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the effect of Hampshire police service's new contact management platform on the effectiveness of Hampshire police officers; and if she will make a statement.

Kit Malthouse: Contact management is an operational matter for policing. Decisions about the allocation of police resources and deployment of officers are for Chief Constables and democratically accountable Police and Crime Commissioners. They are responsible for ensuring the needs of the local community are met.

Hampshire Constabulary: ICT

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much and what proportion of the budget of Hampshire police has been allocated to the implementation of its contact management platform in (a) each year since its inception and (b) 2019 to date.

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions her Department has had with the Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner on Hampshire police service's contact management platform; and if she will make a statement.

Kit Malthouse: Contact management is an operational matter for policing. Decisions about the allocation of police resources and deployment of officers are for Chief Constables and democratically accountable Police and Crime Commissioners. They are responsible for ensuring the needs of the local community are met.

Department for International Development

Yemen: International Assistance

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what estimate his Department has made of the extent of the fulfilment of pledges of humanitarian aid by British allies towards the Yemen Humanitarian Response plan.

Dr Andrew Murrison: The UN’s 2019 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan is 69.5% funded so far this year. We thank all donors who have provided funding, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, who provided approximately $800 million between them in September. We continue to encourage all donors to rapidly release their remaining pledges and consider providing further funding.

Developing Countries: Tuberculosis

Nic Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment his department has made of (a) the implications for his policies of the WHO report entitled Global Tuberculosis Report 2019 and (b) the potential effect of a new TB vaccine on achieving the (i) SDG target of ending the TB epidemic by 2030 and (ii) WHO End TB Strategy of reducing TB deaths by 95% and cutting new cases of TB by 90% between 2015 and 2035.

Dr Andrew Murrison: The Global Tuberculosis Report 2019 provides important evidence on the challenge in tackling tuberculosis as an issue of global public health importance. We remain committed to the global effort and the World Health Organisation End Tuberculosis Strategy. We are proud to be at the forefront of work to prevent, detect and treat tuberculosis, including funding research to develop new treatments to tackle drug resistant tuberculosis. Our commitment to provide £1.4 billion to the latest replenishment of the Global Fund will help provide tuberculosis treatment and care for over 2 million people. A new tuberculosis vaccine could potentially have a significant effect on reducing tuberculosis deaths, and there is cautious optimism about the results for one potential vaccine, although there is still a very high degree of uncertainty for this high-risk research. DFID carefully considers robust data on specific vaccines before taking a view on its role in tackling a disease, including its relative impact alongside other established interventions.

Cabinet Office

Brexit: Publicity

Mr Steve Reed: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much has been spent on the Get ready for Brexit communications campaign as of 25 October 2019.

Ruth Jones: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much money from the public purse has been spent on (a) posters, (b) billboards, (c) electronic communication and (d) paper communication advertising the UK leaving the EU on 31 October 2019.

Chloe Smith: I refer the Hon Member to the answer given to grouped PQs 290437, 290765 and 290970 on the 30th September 2019.

Treasury

Infrastructure

Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment the Government has made of the implications for its policies of the recommendations made by the Institution of Civil Engineers in its paper entitled Reducing the gap between cost estimates and outturns for major projects and programmes.

Jesse Norman: The Government considers all reports from relevant stakeholders, and considerable work is taking place across government to improve the delivery of infrastructure projects.

UK Trade with EU: Northern Ireland

David Simpson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with businesses in Northern Ireland on the requirement to fill out declaration forms to trade with the rest of the UK under the Government's agreement with the EU.

Jesse Norman: The Government has engaged and will engage closely with affected businesses and business representative organisations over the new deal, including those in Northern Ireland, to ensure that delivery of any new administrative requirements works for everyone.

Research Fund for Coal and Steel

Jessica Morden: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what representations he has received on the use of the £225 million UK share of the Research Fund for Coal and Steel after the UK leaves the EU.

Rishi Sunak: The Chancellor of the Exchequer has not received any recent representations on the use of the UK’s share of the assets of the Research Fund for Coal and Steel. Future expenditure will be decided at the Spending Review. If the UK leaves the EU with a withdrawal agreement, we will continue to participate in the Research Fund for Coal and Steel, during the implementation period. In a no-deal scenario, UK entities that receive RFCS funding from the European Commission or submit a successful bid before EU exit will be covered by the government’s EU programmes guarantee, for the lifetime of the projects. This will support UK participants to continue to take part in RFCS projects, subject to the UK entity being eligible to continue to participate in the project.

Financial Services Ombudsman

Thangam Debbonaire: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the Financial Services Ombudsman has adequate resources to (a) conduct thorough investigations and (b) deliver timely decisions on cases.

John Glen: Under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is required to take such steps as are necessary to ensure that the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) is capable of exercising its functions, including approving the FOS’s annual budget. Furthermore, the FOS is subject to statutory audit by the National Audit Office and must publish reports of determinations. The FOS and the FCA are operationally independent of Government.

Mineworkers' Pension Scheme

Nick Smith: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, by what date his Department plans to implement proposals of the Mineworkers' Pensions Scheme on the long-term protection of pension bonuses for members of that Scheme.

Rishi Sunak: A decision on the changes has been taken and we will communicate this to interested parties shortly.

Offshore Funds

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many bank accounts are held offshore by (a) central Government, (b) local government and (c) Government controlled companies.

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what work his Department (a) has undertaken in the last two years and (b) plans to undertake to strengthen the (i) rules on and (ii) transparency of the use of offshore banking by government.

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what (a) work and (b) reviews his Department has requested from the (i) Ministry of Defence, (ii) Department of Health and Social Care, (iii) Department for International Development and (iv) Foreign Office on the adequacy of controls on senior staff using offshore bank accounts.

John Glen: HM Treasury continues to monitor the value of funds held outside the Exchequer through regular disclosures made by government departments. These returns include funds held in offshore bank accounts. Managing Public Money sets out that it is the responsibility of the organisation’s accounting officer, working with internal and external auditors, to ensure that the appropriate financial controls are in place and that the use of all banking services complies with relevant laws and regulations. Information on the specific number of offshore bank accounts held by central Government, local government and Government-controlled companies is currently not available and could only be provided at a disproportionate cost.

Funerals: Pre-payment

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the timeframe is for publishing the outcome of his Department's consultation on a policy proposal for the regulation of pre-paid funeral plans.

John Glen: HM Treasury launched a call for evidence on the regulation of pre-paid funeral plans in June 2018. The call for evidence confirmed that consumer detriment is present in the pre-paid funeral plan sector and that there is broad demand for the sector to come under compulsory regulation. Consequently, the government intends to bring the pre-paid funeral plan market within the remit of the Financial Conduct Authority and has consulted on the proposed legislative framework to implement this proposal. The consultation closed on 25 August and the government is currently reviewing the responses. A response to the consultation will be published in due course.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

National Citizen Service Trust

Chuka Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the validity of the decision by the National Citizen Service Trust to withdraw NCS contracts from The Challenge; and what steps her Department and the Cabinet Office plan to take to help (a) resolve those issues that The Challenge reportedly raised with her Department on the National Citizen Service Trust before the withdrawal of its contracts and (b) maintain NCS (i) jobs and (ii) places.

Nicky Morgan: The NCS Trust are the contracting authority for the NCS programme and have operational accountability for the NCS delivery chain. As such, procurement issues are a contractual matter between the NCS Trust and The Challenge, with DCMS being regularly informed. The procurement process for the re-commissioning of NCS contracts, carried out by the NCS Trust in 2019, was approved by both DCMS and HMT. In regards to the issues raised by The Challenge, NCS Trust is an arms-length body of DCMS and, in line with standard complaint procedures, DCMS is investigating the matters raised and will address any findings as appropriate. All NCS delivery regions have been successfully contracted for, to make sure there is minimal loss in NCS participation levels from 2020 onwards.

Youth Investment Fund

Mr Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether the £500 million youth investment fund includes money allocated from her Department's budget.

Matt Warman: The £500 million Youth Investment Fund announced by the Chancellor on 30th September, will be additional funding to the DCMS baseline budget from April 2020.

Northern Ireland Office

Local Growth Deals and City Region Deals: Northern Ireland

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what his timescale is for making city and growth deals payments for Northern Ireland in the event of (a) restoration of devolution and (b) devolution not being restored in the next 12 months.

Julian Smith: The release of financial contributions towards City and Growth deals can only be made with the sign-off of Full Business Cases. The timescale to achieve this is primarily dependent on the pace and resourcing of the relevant Councils and Deal partners. For devolved projects, a restored Executive will have to consider the question of match-funding and agreement of individual projects.

Abortion: Northern Ireland

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, when the consultation on section 9 of the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019 will be launched; and what the terms of the consultation will be.

Julian Smith: The Government believes that a period of consultation on the issues of abortion law in Northern Ireland is the right thing to do, given the range of sensitive policy issues that need to be carefully worked through. We will be looking to shortly launch a consultation on the proposed new legal framework to be in place by 31 March 2020. The consultation will focus on how we can deliver the proposed new legislative framework for Northern Ireland, consistent with the recommendations in the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women Report, Inquiry concerning the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland under article 8 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, to deliver on the statutory duty in section 9 of the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019.

*No heading*

Bob Blackman: What progress has been made on restoring devolved government in Northern Ireland.

Julian Smith: I was disappointed that the parties were unable to reach an accommodation before the 21 October deadline. Getting Stormont back up and running remains my absolute priority, and I will do everything in my power to make it happen before the 13 January deadline. At that point, the choices facing us will be very limited indeed.

*No heading*

Greg Hands: What recent discussions he has had with the Irish Government on ensuring that there is no hard border on the island of Ireland.

Julian Smith: I have regular discussions with the Irish Government concerning the UK's exit from the EU. The Government is fully committed to ensuring there will be no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. The Prime Minister has negotiated a new deal which ensures that will be the case.

*No heading*

Chris Green: What recent assessment he has made of the economic importance of the tech sector to Northern Ireland.

Julian Smith: Northern Ireland continues to benefit from the decision taken by this Government to build a stronger economy across the whole of the United Kingdom. Of particular importance, is the Tech Sector, which provides highly skilled and rewarding jobs, as well as boosting innovation.The UK Government has announced economic investments of over £600m through City and Growth Deals and other initiatives that cover all 11 councils in Northern Ireland. This provides an excellent opportunity for each to enrich their Tech Sector capabilities, including digital and R&D innovations; and clearly demonstrates the Government’s continued support for the development of skills provision and growth in this innovative sector.

Prime Minister

Members: Surveillance

Chuka Umunna: To ask the Prime Minister, with reference to the then Prime Minister’s Written Statement of 4 November 2015 on the Wilson doctrine, what his policy is on the Wilson doctrine.

Boris Johnson: The Wilson Doctrine is unchanged from the position set out in my predecessor's Written Statement of 4 November 2015 (HCWS291).